New horizons in undergraduate geriatric medicine education

Securing tomorrow's workforce: insights from a Danish survey on factors influencing junior doctors' specialization in geriatric medicine

PURPOSE

With aging populations, more geriatricians are needed. Despite the demand, filling specialist-training positions remains challenging, and the factors influencing junior doctors' career choices in Denmark are not well understood. This study aimed to investigate the factors influencing junior doctors' decisions to choose geriatric specialist training.

METHODS

A literature review informed the development of a survey, which included demographic and open-ended questions about prior geriatric training, reasons for pursuing geriatric positions, and perspectives on geriatric specialist training. The survey targeted junior doctors completing their introductory year positions in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at Danish hospitals from March to September 2023. Qualitative data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Out of approximately 130 eligible respondents, 75 provided responses. Among them, 13% (n = 10) expressed interest in pursuing a geriatric career, and 44% (n = 33) indicated a potential interest. In total, 60% (n = 45) reported having received geriatric training during medical school. Thematic analysis generated three themes. 1) Achieving core geriatric medicine competencies: This included receiving geriatric education and practicing in specialized geriatric services, e.g., hospital-at-home. 2) Achieving work-life balance: This appeared particularly important in multi-center training programs or during emergency department rotations. 3) Enhancing recruitment strategies: This involved acknowledging talents, utilizing role models, increasing visibility in medical school curricula, and strengthening the specialty's professional reputation. Finally, ten recommendations were generated.

CONCLUSION

Recruiting junior doctors to pursue a career in geriatric medicine may benefit from targeted learning in geriatric competencies, the presence of role models, and ensuring that clinical training practices support work-life balance.

The present and future of geriatric internal medicine: a bibliometric analysis

With the gradual progress of global aging, geriatric medicine is becoming increasingly popular, and within geriatric medicine, internal medicine holds a very important position. Understanding the situation in the field of geriatric internal medicine helps researchers gain a comprehensive understanding of this area. In this study, we analyzed and visualized relevant literature from the Web of Science Core Collection database using bibliometric methods, collecting a total of 831 articles, with a time span from 1978 to August 2024. We analyzed the overview of the field, the degree of aging and the volume of publications by country, the core journals in the field, the collaboration relationships among institutions and authors, as well as the hotspots and their changes, and discussed the results. This study provides a broad perspective for professionals in the field of geriatric internal medicine and discusses the future research development in the field.

Inspiring tomorrow's geriatricians: a qualitative exploration of the facilitators and barriers to medical students choosing geriatric medicine

Education in the care of older people, beginning at undergraduate-level, will help to meet the needs of our aging population. Thus, we need to understand why and in what ways medical students have difficulty engaging with older people and geriatric medicine. Twenty-two medical students studying at the University of Bristol (UK) participated in focus groups, exploring their attitudes toward older people and toward geriatric medicine. Five themes were derived using reflexive thematic analysis. Relationships with older relatives contribute toward students' perceptions of older patients and can enhance their empathy. However, some compartmentalize personal experiences from professional practice to mitigate moral distress. Students are aware of ageism, and in turn encounter challenging views among the older population, which both present significant challenges. It was clear that career decision-making is multi-faceted; inspiring role models, welcoming learning environments, and undergraduate experience were all important. Critically, undergraduate exposure to the full breadth of geriatric medicine and the spectrum of aging was key to changing students' negative pre-conceptions about caring for older people and geriatric medicine. Undergraduate medical education offers a crucial point during medical training where we can intervene to improve the attitudes of and inspire career interest in tomorrow's doctors.

Engaging the next generation of psychiatrists for geriatric psychiatry: call for action on behalf of the European Association of Geriatric Psychiatry

Geriatric (old age) psychiatry faces growing challenges amid Europe's ageing population. This editorial emphasises the need for specialised training, mentorship and subspecialty recognition to attract young psychiatrists. By addressing structural gaps and fostering innovation, the field offers a rewarding career in enhancing older adults' mental healthcare and quality of life.

A narrative overview of undergraduate geriatric medicine education worldwide

There is a mismatch between the healthcare needs of the ageing population worldwide and the amount of education medical students receive in geriatric medicine. In 2014, Mateos-Nozal et al. published a systematic review of all undergraduate education surveys in geriatric medicine-a decade on, it is timely for an up-to-date overview of the state of undergraduate geriatric medicine education globally. In this review, we outline the international evidence in the field, exploring the results of national and multi-national teaching surveys, and discussing the relative strengths and weaknesses of nationally recommended curricula. We set these findings in the context of ageing population demographics, concluding with recommendations for the future of education and educational research in geriatric medicine, that aims to build capacity in the healthcare workforce and improve quality of care for older people.