What to consider when thinking about doing research, including a personal perspective from a new researcher. The key decisions you'll have to make, and the benefits to you, and to medical science.
If you're thinking of doing research but are put off by taking a lengthy break from work or studies, consider doing research part time alongside your clinical job. We examine the pros and cons.
Between 2012 and 2021, the BGS has, as part of the annual Trainees' Weekend, set a mock SCE session in order to support BGS trainees who were preparing to sit the RCP SCE exam. Here we publish the mock questions and answers for each year's session.
Providing healthcare to older adults is often extremely challenging. Patients often have multiple long-term conditions, and present to healthcare in atypical ways. Doctors need to be highly competent communicators with knowledge of medical ethics, social care and palliative medicine.
When taking time out of programme (or OOP), it's important to maintain clinical skills and knowledge when medical practice is constantly evolving.
In these videos, BGS members and their colleagues share their journeys into geriatrics, and explain why it is such a compelling and rewarding specialty to work in.
From November 2023, the CESR route for Specialist and GP registration changed to the new Portfolio Pathway. Dr Amit Arora (BGS Vice President, Workforce), Dr Saniya Naseer (SAS doctor) and Dr Somaditya Bandyopadhyay (SAS doctor) met with the General Medical Council (GMC) to clarify some common issues and questions for the benefit of our many SAS doctors.
This section of the Delirium Hub contains resources which focus on staff training and how to educate patients and relatives.
In advance of the general election on 4 July, BGS has outlined ten asks under three themes that the next Government needs to prioritise in order to improve healthcare for older people.
This report analyses data from the UK 2022 census of consultant physicians, conducted by the Royal College of Physicians London on behalf of the Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK. The latest RCP census was published in 2023 and is based on data collected in 2022.
This report summarises the findings of a survey of the BGS membership undertaken in late 2023. It provides a snapshot into how our members are feeling about their work and the services they work in.
A selection of helpful resources to assist in planning, undertaking and publishing your research.
This section of the Research Hub provides an introduction to the topic and looks at how and why to get involved in geriatric medicine research.
As the population of older people increases, so too does the need for healthcare professionals who are trained to provide high-quality care to these complex individuals. This issue explores some of the challenges and solutions to the workforce crisis. This content is limited to members only.
This report examines the geriatrician workforce needed to provide high-quality care for an ageing population with increasingly complex needs.
Links, tips and tricks for trainees interested in a career in care of the older person.
Results of a survey carried out among attendees of the BGS Trainees' Weekend 2022, reflecting on issues relating to study leave and the wider picture for Trainees.
This issue looks at the evolution of education and training in the field of older people's health, showcasing ways that practitioners can improve and evidence their specialist skills. This content is limited to members only.
The BGS has published a report examining data collected by the RCP on the consultant and Higher Specialty Trainee geriatric medicine workforce.
Congratulations to Dr Richard Dodds and Dr Melanie Dani - the winners of the BGS EAMA awards in 2018.
When I started my quality improvement (QI) project over the summer, I had no idea about the steep learning curve I was about to climb. I had an aim to improve recognition of frailty on the general surgical ward in order to increase appropriate referrals to the Frailty Liaison Team.
Reflecting on my education over the last few years, I think I may have learned most from Twitter. There is a seriously erudite group of geriatricians dropping pearls of wisdom there, of which Dr Henry Woodford is just one.
I am over the moon to be awarded the BGS Rising Star Award for Research 2021. Having joined the BGS as an undergraduate student, the Society has been omnipresent throughout my clinical and academic development. From the Amulree Essay Prize to the Young Doctors Education Grant (twice!), to the European Academy for Medicine of Ageing grant, the BGS has supported me in accessing opportunities that have shaped my career thus far.
It was of course an honour to receive the BGS Rising Star award, five years ago in 2017. An unexpected benefit of this was the photograph taken of the then President Dr Eileen Burns, presenting me with the award, which now appears regularly as a stock photo in BGS comms.
Despite Prof. Bernard Isaacs (a fellow Scot) naming incontinence as one of the geriatric giants in the 1960s (along with immobility, instability, and impaired intellect/memory), it was still a topic that, decades later, was not taught (at least not well enough to recollect) during my undergraduate days. Speaking to care of the elderly registrars, this is largely unchanged. It wasn’t until I started working as a registrar for (the fantastic) Vikky Morris at Musgrove Park Hospital that I gained insight to issues that those with continence problems face. Having Vikky as an enthusiastic teacher really helped pique my interest in bowel and bladder health.
With the national agenda to create virtual wards has come an increasing demand to develop Hospital at Home (hospital@home, H@H) services. Guys and St Thomas’ H@H, operational since 2014, “takes the ward to the patient’s home”.
One of the key challenges of being a geriatrician is to be able to gain a sense of the wider perspective of ageing. Although geriatricians and gerontological nurses are the gerontologists who have the most day-to-day contact with older people, this is often with those who are frail and living with multimorbidity.
Michael Allcock had never really given medicine as a career any serious thought growing up, until a stint at an Acute Frailty Unit (AFU) led him to find his passion.
The BGS Autumn Meeting 2021 marks the beginning of the term of office for a number of new BGS officers. We are incredibly grateful for the energy and commitment that all our officers bring to their roles.
Dr Duncan Forsyth’s co-authored book is one of the best specialty certificate examination (SCE) geriatrics books on the market. In fact, it is one of the only SCE geriatrics books on the market.
The leadership and enthusiasm of the BGS Scottish Council, along with the support of the BGS conference team, ensured that the BGS Scottish Spring Meeting was back on the calendar for 2021.
Even as a medical student I was drawn to elderly patients, but as a Senior House Officer (SHO) in a busy London hospital I soon found that I did not thrive on the acute ward.
Who do you think wrote the best poem on ageing? Could it be Yeats, Keats, Frost, Cope, Barrett Browning, Wordsworth, or even Shakespeare?
Do you dare to care? We have typically been called into our professional roles because we want to directly care for others. If not, we might have been technicians or scientists instead of healthcare professionals.
Would I recommend the role? 100% yes! It really has been a brilliant opportunity! I have felt warmly invited into the BGS family and have also loved getting to know the other trainee officers in the other roles on the council.
I was delighted and intrigued when I first heard about Emergence, an anthology of prose and poetry related to ageing, all nominated by clinicians working with older adults in Ireland.
The benefits of using podcasts as tools for learning and reflection in undergraduate and professional settings are now well documented. Podcasts provide mobile, accessible content which can be supplementary and complementary to the more formal and established ways of learning that we have been used to, and more people are discovering these benefits all the time.
I talk about frailty a lot. I hear the word ‘frailty’ a lot. In the clinical environment, across academic literature, in the media to describe weakened politicians and even from my 3-year-old son (courtesy of the snail).
As clinicians, we are aware of the complex interplay between physical, psychological and social aspects of illness and health. And yet when the pressure of work is intense we sometimes neglect our own wellbeing.
As we come up to a year since COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and ‘normal’ life as we knew it was halted, BGS President Dr Jennifer Burns reflects on what has happened over the past year.
Geriatrics 4 Juniors 2024
2024 Leadership and Management Course
2024 POPS meeting
2024 Meeting of the Cardiovascular SIG
Education in Geriatric Medicine
Wales Spring Meeting in Wrexham
BGS Webinar on Improving Education of the 3 Ds – Dementia, Delirium and Depression
BGS Webinar on IMT applications
Geriatrics for Juniors is a one-day conference, designed for Foundation Doctors, Internal Medical, GP Trainees, and Specialist Nurse Practitioners. It aims to deliver relevant and useful clinical updates in all the main sub-specialties of Geriatric Medicine, in order to improve the standard of care for older patients.
A two-day residential course specifically designed for those in training roles in geriatric medicine, moving into senior roles. This course focuses on management and leadership issues that affect health services for older people.
Geriatrics for Everyone is a free-to-attend one-day conference. It is for all in training or wishing to develop their knowledge and skills around older people medicine.
Live in Edinburgh and online 17-19 May. Click here to register, view the programme and access the live stream.
A BGS communities of practice online meeting - this meeting will focus on developing leadership skills for Nurse and Allied Health professionals
Geriatrics for Juniors is a one-day conference, designed for Foundation Doctors, Internal Medical, GP Trainees, and Specialist Nurse Practitioners interested in providing excellent healthcare to older people.