Intergenerational Connection in the COVID-19 Pandemic

To the Editor:

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of older U.S. adults living in long-term care facilities (LTCFs). For some, the threat of illness has materialized into suffering and death. While minimizing contact with others has been a public health necessity, isolation has contributed to older adults’ worsening mental and physical health. ¹

In response, we created a telephone call program that paired University of Virginia (UVA) medical students with residents in regional LTCFs. Twenty-eight students took a training course on COVID-19 epidemiology and communication strategies developed by the UVA Geriatrics Division. We phoned our resident partners biweekly between March and June 2020.

As students, our goal was to form social relationships over the phone with residents. We listened to stories and, in turn, spoke about our lives and medical school experiences. At times, we learned valuable lessons about medical practice. One LTCF resident, a retired hospice nurse, spoke about “what happens around death” and the “emotional experiences” involved in hospice care; she recommended that we as physicians take time to process loss.

Many resident partners were socially isolated in lockdown, unable to leave their apartments or see family. Our conversations enabled them to teach us about resilience in the face of hardship and about confronting uncertainty—core competencies we will need as clinicians. Likewise, LTCF resident partners reported benefit from feelings of generativity gained from speaking with us, younger adults. ²

Although this student-initiated telephone program was not sustained, it supported the well-being of older adults and medical students alike and contributed in practical, experiential ways to students’ formation as caring persons and compassionate physicians. The UVA School of Medicine took note, and, building upon our voluntary initiative, has integrated virtual encounters and more phone calls into the Patient Student Partnership, a longitudinal program in which all students are paired with chronically ill patients throughout the 4 years of medical school.

Acknowledgments:

The authors wish to thank the long-term care facility (LTCF) administrators and staff for their efforts to assist with the formed pairs. They also wish to thank their LTCF resident and student participants for their dedication to the program and time spent providing valuable feedback.