Abstract
Introduction
Despite the UK’s increasing life expectancy, and increasing elderly population, we have an overwhelming lack of Geriatricians; as of 2022, there is only 1 consultant Geriatrician per 8,031 individuals over of 65. To meet the care needs of this population, we must focus on increasing the interest that doctors have towards Geriatrics, with the overall aim being to recruit more doctors into Geriatrics.
Method
This review aimed to investigate what factors medical students perceive as barriers to pursuing a career in Geriatric Medicine and then, from identifying these, generate a set of comprehensive suggestions as to how to tackle these barriers at a medical school level to increase the interest and ultimately uptake of Geriatric Medicine. The qualitative review contains literature published between 2003 and 2023 accessed using MedLine.
Results
Six themes were identified: (a) high emotional burden, (b) caring for patients with complex needs, (c) negative preconceptions of non-clinical factors (prestige, salary, career progression), (d) negative influence of clinical educators, (e) lack of intellectual stimulation and (f) lack of exposure to the speciality and the elderly.
Conclusion
Barriers perceived by medical students when considering Geriatrics as a speciality are complex and multifaceted; these must be tackled promptly to secure the next generation of Geriatricians. We suggest this work should be used as a foundation for further qualitative studies with UK medical students to investigate barriers that are specific to UK students. Subsequently, interventional courses designed to increase Geriatrics uptake could be developed to strengthen the UK Geriatrics workforce.