I’m sure most of us can remember the first geriatrician who inspired us, as either medical students or junior doctors, to do geriatric medicine. I certainly can.

I was on-call as a medical house officer in a district general hospital, presenting my patients to the registrar (a geriatrician). After finishing with the second patient of the day, who had taken a paracetamol overdose, I suggested that we move on to the next admission, which I breezily dismissed as “just a social admission”. His eyebrow raised a little as he enquired who was more deserving of that bed, the young girl who had impulsively taken an overdose after a row with her boyfriend, or the 82 year old lady who was struggling at home, due to a urinary tract infection on top of her severe osteoarthritis. That one conversation altered the way I viewed my frail older patients.

Old people need good doctors
I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I then compounded my social gaffe by asking this registrar why, being such a good doctor, he was working in geriatrics! He had the grace to smile before replying, “Old people need good doctors even more than young people do”.

As a registrar myself now, I hope that my enthusiasm for the job will encourage medical students and junior doctors to consider geriatric medicine as a career. Surely positive role models are one of the best ways to overcome some of the current difficulties in filling NTNs? With this in mind, I would be grateful if you could spend two minutes completing the “Why Geriatrics” survey enclosed with the printed Newsletter. Junior doctor training is undergoing huge change with the imminent introduction of Modernising Medical Careers and it is important that geriatric medicine retains a strong presence in medical rotations. It would therefore be very useful to know when and why current trainees and consultants choose geriatric medicine as a career.I hope to see as many of you as possible at our trainees meeting at lunch time on the Friday of the scientific conference in Birmingham.

Sally Briggs
Chair
Trainees’ Group