FP Shares Expertise in Geriatrics and More

“I’m a lifelong learner,” said Jaqua, who has completed fellowships in geriatrics, primary care psychiatry and pain management since graduating from Loma Linda University’s family medicine residency in 2017. “I just want to learn everything I can to provide the best possible care to my patients. Furthermore, I am committed to teaching and mentoring my residents by staying up to date with the latest medical knowledge and advancements.”

Jaqua, an associate professor in Loma Linda’s Department of Family Medicine and associate residency program director, is also doing her best to keep her peers up to date. She will present sessions on maximizing annual visits for Medicare patients, and differentiating delirium, dementia and depression on Oct. 5-8 during the AAFP’s Geriatric Medicine Live Course in Bonita Springs, Fla. 

She will repeat the Medicare session and present a session on chronic cough on Oct. 26-29 during the Family Medicine Experience in Chicago.

Jaqua was faculty for the AAFP’s online Alzheimer’s/Dementia CME course, and her “3Ds” Geriatric Medicine Live session is based on CME she originally created for the AAFP’s online Rural Health course. She also published an article on the prevention, evaluation and management of delirium in older patients in the September issue of American Family Physician.

“I’m very excited about this,” she said of the journal article. “It was on my bucket list. I love writing articles and doing scholarly activities. Giving the presentations and sharing with everybody else is a good learning opportunity for me.”

Jaqua and three of her Loma Linda colleagues wrote the content for the May issue of F.P. Essentials, which focused on the evaluation of adult patients with respiratory symptoms, including chronic cough.

Her passion for geriatric care can be traced back to her time in medical school when her grandmother was suffering with Alzheimer’s disease.

“My grandma lived with my family because my mom was a gospel singer, and she was traveling a lot,” Jaqua said. “My grandmother was my second mother. In her late dementia stages, she was placed on a gastrostomy tube. I wish I had a better understanding to help her then. I decided to go into geriatrics to offer better care and improve the quality of life for older adults and their loved ones.”

After earning her medical degree from the Lutheran University of Brazil, Jaqua hoped to land a family medicine residency position at a hospital in Brazil, but the highly competitive program required fluency in English.

She traveled to California with plans to take a few English classes and return home to continue her training. Instead, she met her husband, a hospital administrator with dual citizenship in Brazil and the United States, at a church in Riverside and never moved back.

Jaqua worked in documentation and coding for a few years before resuming her training at Loma Linda and followed residency with a geriatrics fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“I believe that if you know how to care for older adults, you can take care of everyone else because geriatric patients are so complex,” she said. “Older adults have many medical problems and usually take several medications. I love pharmacology. It’s like a puzzle we put together to see what medications are important and which ones we can deprescribe. That extra year of fellowship training gave me more confidence in caring for older adults, who often require specialized and comprehensive attention due to their unique health care needs.”

Jaqua emphasizes to her residents that they can help older patients beyond prescription pads.

“Some patients may lack a strong support system or regular family visits,” she said. “In such cases, I want to be a physician who not only addresses the patient’s medical needs but also shows empathy and provides emotional support. I encourage my residents to engage with these patients in conversation, as they often have a wealth of life experiences and wisdom to share.”

For example, Jaqua said one of her geriatric patients offered a home remedy that helped soothe her daughter’s colic.

“I know it’s not evidence-based, but I tried it, and it worked,” she said. “I always felt my geriatric patients have so much insight and knowledge. They convey a sense of trust, reliability, and affectionate assistance.”

Jaqua recently shared one of her own experiences as a patient as part of her presentation at the California AFP’s Family Medicine POP event. She lost 60 pounds in four months through a combination of medication and lifestyle modifications.

“Medications can be helpful, but the foundation is through lifestyle changes,” said Jaqua, whose federally qualified health center opened a combined obesity and lifestyle medicine clinic earlier this year.