Perceived barriers to Geriatric Medicine in medical students

Abstract

Geriatric Medicine remains a speciality with low uptake in the UK, despite the UK having a rapidly growing ageing population. The aim of this review is was to investigate what factors medical students perceive as barriers to Geriatric Medicine and then, from identifying these, generate several suggestions as to how to tackle these barriers at a medical school level to increase the interest and ultimately uptake of Geriatric Medicine as a speciality. The review contains literature published between 2003 and 2023 accessed using MedLine. Several themes were identified including; (a) high emotional burden, (b), caring for patients with complex needs, (c) career perceived as uninteresting and more. We suggest that further qualitative work is carried out across medical schools in the UK, in all years of study, to investigate when interest in Geriatric Medicine peaks or troughs, and to investigate holistically the programmes currently in place to improve interest in Geriatric Medicine for medical students and their efficacy.