Special Interest Areas
Geriatric medicine has many opportunities within it for both sub-specialisation but also for work in many non-clinical areas.
The following accounts are from trainees and are written to provide examples of the kind of things you could be doing!
by Dr Matthew Roycroft, Leadership Fellow 2017, South Yorkshire Trainee
Even prior to working as an HEE Leadership Fellow I found geriatric medicine gave me fantastic opportunities to develop myself as a leader. I used my personal study time to pursue the NHS Leadership Academy's Edward Jenner foundations of leadership programme and I think the complex multidisciplinary nature of geriatric medicine naturally leads to many opportunities to collaborate with people to improve services. As an StR I've been able to present at consultant meetings, to meet with medical directors and have found senior staff really keen to help provide opportunites for development.
In my Leadership Fellow year I've continued to find the same openness. Although I keep being surprised by the complexities of the NHS the more I find out about them the more people I work with the more I realise how welcoming the vast majority of senior staff are and how non-clinical staff, although facing different pressures to medics, both work incredibly hard and mean well with ideas for change. I'd strongly recommend every doctor try and develop some experience of Leadership and Management as the NHS is crying out for input from people with a clinical background that are keen to help address the problems it's facing!
by Dr Matthew Roycroft, OOPE 2017, South Yorkshire Trainee
Although you can go out of programme (OOP) for many reasons (such as research or specific training), in August 2017 I took a one year break from clinical medicine to pursue an Out of Programme Experience (OOPE) year. I found the whole application process to be reasonably straightforward and although there were a few forms to fill in I was encouraged and supported at all stages by our TPDs. I think this was probably helped by discussing my thoughts with them a year or so in advance well before I'd even been successful for the post I'd applied for and I think these early discussions greatly helped when I finally got the post I wanted.
Although I'm slightly nervous about returning to training following a year long break from clinical practice I hope the Yorkshire and the Humber Return to Training scheme and procedural refresher courses will greatly help smooth this transitional period.