You might call Jane Potter, M.D., a pioneer.
Back in 1982, when she began her career at UNMC, she was the only trained geriatrician in Nebraska.
Today, as she gets ready to open the Home Instead Center for Successful Aging next week, she is about to make another mark in Nebraska history.
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Tom O’Connor |
“I gave a talk at the American Geriatric Society recently,” Dr. Potter said. “The people were amazed and astounded with the things we will be able to do with this facility.”
Under Dr. Potter’s leadership, the division of geriatrics and gerontology in the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine has exploded. The division now includes eight physicians, and its patient volume has soared.
The partnership with Home Instead Senior Care is a perfect fit, Dr. Potter said.
“Independence and function are the keys to success in aging,” she said. “That’s what Home Instead is all about. They provide enough support in the home to make life wonderful.”
She smiles as she recounts the experience of one senior couple with Home Instead. “Their Home Instead caregiver even cleaned their garage,” she said. “They’ll do almost anything.”
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Jane Potter, M.D. |
“I have the best time on Tuesday morning in my primary care clinic,” she said. “I’m often seeing the oldest of the old. These people all have a variety of small things that add up to a reasonably uncomfortable problem. Unlike with younger people, there is no clear cut single diagnosis.”
To keep these people going requires a host of medical skills. The geriatrician must be an internist, counselor, social worker, psychologist, physiatrist and pharmacologist.
“It is the most broad, complex form of medicine,” she said. “It also is extremely gratifying work, in repeated national surveys of practicing physicians, geriatricians rank at the top in job satisfaction.”
UNMC holds its own with the best geriatric programs in the country in grant funding for its educational program.
“We’re attracting outstanding physicians to our fellowship program,” Dr. Potter said. “We’re creating a legacy of how to improve health and function for older people.”
And the best is yet to come.
I had the privilege of taking a Geriatric Externship with Dr. Potter between my first and second years of medical school at UNMC. Dr. Potter models those traits young physicians aspire to: compassion, excellence, teaching. It is no surprise that the geriatrics program has flourished under her leadership and stands to continue its exponential growth and development with the opening of the Home Instead Center for Successful Aging.
My mother is 86 and we just recently moved her to Nebraska from California. I immediately got her into the UNMC Geriatrics program and Dr. Potter is her primary physician. My mother has never received such wonderful care from a group of dedicated professionals. Thanks Dr. Potter and everyone on the geriatrics staff.
Dr. Potter was the primary physician for my husband for almost 20 years as he battled with Alzheimer's. She was the essence of what one wants in a physician: knowledgeable, caring, patient, compassionate. She respected my opinion and always took time to explain her thinking and alternatives which might be considered. Alzheimer's is a terrible disease, but having the right caregiver team help make it more bearable for the caregiver.