Courses & Conferences to Attend
Courses I Attended
1. Teach the Teacher Course for Doctors
A course that covers teaching theories, principles and teaching tools. I found this course really helpful in making me a better teacher as a doctor.
2. Mentoring Skills for Doctors Course
A course focusing on improving 1 to 1 teaching skills, aiming to enhance your skills as a mentor to better support other doctors to develop their own skills.
3. CAMhELs Course (Cancer, Mental Health and End of Life Simulation)
A one-day simulation programme. This programme covers learning objectives from diagnosis through to end of life care for cancer patients. The course covers key aspects of communication, management of acute mental health problems in the cancer context, management of medical and psychiatric co-morbidity, basics of palliative care assessment and management.
4. Medical Leadership and Management Course for Trainees
A course on leadership and management, exploring successful leadership qualities with an introduction to the different leadership styles and frameworks. The course helped me improve my self awareness and leadership by appreciating my own leadership style and its’ impact on others.
Courses I'd Recommend
British Geriatric Society (BGS) conferences would probably be my top recommendation.
It is a fantastic opportunity to network and meet future colleagues and like-minded people. The conferences are fantastic as they provide a very rich learning experience and up-to-date hot off-the-press developments within the speciality – it’s fun, you get to meet and hear talks from very inspirational colleagues and it will give you lots of things to talk about in interviews and really show your commitment to the speciality and stand out!
I would highly recommend becoming a member of the BGS as well because it gives you discounted fees for BGS events/conferences, an online subscription to their scientific journal Age and Ageing and access to e learning resources and best practice guidance to keep you updated on the latest developments within the field. It is free for foundation year doctors!
How to Maximise Your Portfolio
Start early. I found it very helpful to print out the self-assessment scoring framework (these can be found on the PHST recruitment website) as it is usually these scores that are used to shortlist candidates for interviews. This includes scoring for areas such as postgraduate degrees and qualifications i.e PHD, master's, additional achievements i.e distinctions, honours, prizes, status of MRCP examination passes, presentations, publication, teaching, quality improvement and leadership.
Looking at the application scoring framework in good time allows you to focus on areas where you could get more points for your application such as working towards doing an oral presentation at a national or international meeting in order to score full points for the presentations category.
I would also recommend having a look at the person specification for geriatric medicine as these are the characteristics interviewers are looking for in a future geriatrician!
The BGS has really good resources that you can use to boost your application score including grants and prizes, abstract submission for BGS conferences and leadership opportunities at the BGS.
I would advise making the most out of your study leave and study budget to do the above!
Making the Most of Your Day Job
Geriatrics Placements
Be proactive and always look for opportunities to learn and network.
Make sure people know your intentions of becoming a geriatrician – speak to your supervisors, consultants and registrars who would be able to put you in touch or point you in the right direction for further experience or various opportunities such as quality improvement projects or publications. I would also advise speaking to current trainees and consultants- for interview tips and to get an idea of what life is like as a geriatrician.
Don’t forget to immerse yourself in the speciality and enjoy the experience of the working in geriatrics to get as much experience as possible because having had hands on experience will become very obvious during your interview when your answers to questions/scenarios are based on having looked after elderly patients before and this will put you in a strong position.
Remember there is more to geriatrics than just being on the general geriatrics wards!
There is surgical liaison including orthogeriatrics, the acute frailty unit, rehabilitation wards, care homes, hospices and community medicine. Try to get taster days in these areas if they are not part of your day job. It will give you a better understanding of the speciality and it will show a strong sense of commitment to the speciality in the interview process.
What About Non-Geriatrics Placements?
Don’t worry!
Geriatrics is such a wide and varied speciality and there is geriatric medicine to be found in (almost) every speciality and even if there isn’t the skills you will learn from working in any speciality will almost certainly make you a more well-rounded geriatrician.
In my experience having worked in different specialities including GP, ED, general surgery has made me a better geriatrician.
When you become a geriatrician the patients you look after and the specialities you will be working with will be wide and varied including surgery, other medics and general practice. Personally my experience and knowledge from having worked in other specialities has given me a better understanding of what others do and it has improved my ability to collaborate and work well with them.
Also in order to be a good geriatrician you have to be well rounded in your skills! These skills include excellent communication skills, ability to work well under pressure, pragmatism, teamwork, problem solving skills, diagnostic and decision making skills and leadership skills. These skills can be learned and developed in whatever speciality you’re working in.
Top 3 Tips for Getting Into Geriatrics
- Start early.
Know what they’re looking for in a future geriatric trainee.
- Immerse yourself in the speciality.
Gets lots of experience on the shop floor as well as building your portfolio and make early contact with senior colleagues in the speciality to help support you.
- Do practice interviews!
The more familiar and comfortable you are the better you will score.
