I visited a geriatric community clinic attached to the Los Angeles Jewish Home with some of our classmates. The clinic provides primary and specialty medical care to seniors. We received a warm welcome from the faculty, and they had prepared a professional arrangement for us; moreover, they constantly adapted to our needs. Though we had visited the clinic before, our recent trip provided our first opportunity to talk closely with the faculty, allowing all of us to learn much from this visit. We began by speaking with a nurse practitioner and two physicians in a conference room, and each conversation lasted about 20 minutes. Afterward, we followed the manager and visited the whole clinic.

 During our tour with the faculty, I learned several new ideas. First, American people do not value seniors and regard them as useless. Second, almost all of the residents living in long-term care are whitepeople—otherethnicities, such as Latinos, usually take care of their elderly family members. Third, America’s medical system has different levels of care: hospitals, residential care, nursing homes, and clinics. Hospitals deal with emergencies. Nursing homes provide 24-hour care to frail people (including primary care), execute diagnoses, and dispense medications. Fourth, in regard to payment systems, Medicaid and tax support for long-term care and insurance go to the clinics.

The geriatric community clinic of the Los Angeles Jewish Home provides medical care to residents, aiming to keep them in exceptional health. Most of the patients are residents of the home; the organization, however, plans to extend its services to the community clinic to serve outside patients. Two main groups handle the clinic’s caring. One is a group of full-time physicians employed by the home, including four physicians and two nurse practitioners. The other group comprises the outside physicians, who routinely visit the patients living in the home.

The two physicians we met, Dr. A and Dr. B, both seemed tired but enthusiastic. According to them, being ageriatricianis challenging for several reasons. First, most of their patients are old seniors; in the geriatric clinic of the home, most patients are over 90 years old. They are frail and have weak immune systems, requiring substantial amounts of medicine. Moreover, they often have complicated health conditions; sometimes they even have multiple diseases. Second, this field lacks adequate research. Third, while treating senior patients, geriatrics must be extra meticulous because patients’ histories and other details must be checked carefully. However, Dr. A and Dr. B appreciate their jobs and the overall experience provided by this clinic. Dr. A used to work in public health, research, and administration, but never for more than two years in each setting; however, she has worked in the home for more than 16 years. Helping people to live longer while keeping them functional provides her a sense of meaning and happiness. Not many people like to work with the elderly, but Dr. B appreciates her job and feels comfortable with seniors. The residents in the home might be old and frail, but most are active and fun. The only thing Dr. B finds hard is the talking to family members.