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Lookup NU author(s): Dr James FisherORCiD, Dr Mark Garside
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© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society.All rights reserved. Background: there is concern that there are insufficient numbers of geriatricians to meet the needs of the ageing population. A 2005 survey described factors that influenced why UK geriatricians had chosen to specialise in the field-in the decade since, UK postgraduate training has undergone a fundamental restructure.Objective: to explore whether the reasons for choosing a career in geriatric medicine in the UK had changed over time, with the goal of using this knowledge to inform recruitment and training initiatives.Design: an online survey was sent to all UK higher medical trainees in geriatric medicine.Methods: survey questions that produced categorical data were analysed with simple descriptive statistics. For the survey questions that produced free-text responses, an inductive, iterative approach to analysis, in keeping with the principles of framework analysis, was employed.Results: two hundred and sixty-nine responses were received out of 641 eligible respondents. Compared with the previous survey, a substantially larger number of respondents regarded geriatric medicine to be their first-choice specialty and a smaller number regretted their career decision. A greater number chose geriatric medicine early in their medical careers. Commitments to the general medical rota and the burden of service provision were considered important downsides to the specialty.Conclusions: there are reasons to be optimistic about recruitment to geriatric medicine. Future attempts to drive up recruitment might legitimately focus on the role of the medical registrar and perceptions that geriatricians shoulder a disproportionate burden of service commitments and obligations to the acute medical take.
Author(s): Fisher JM, Garside MJ, Brock P, Gibson V, Hunt K, Briggs S, Gordon AL
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Age and Ageing
Year: 2017
Volume: 46
Issue: 4
Pages: 672-677
Print publication date: 01/07/2017
Online publication date: 06/02/2017
Acceptance date: 07/12/2016
ISSN (print): 0002-0729
ISSN (electronic): 1468-2834
Publisher: Oxford University Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afx009
DOI: 10.1093/ageing/afx009
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