Research Letter

摘要

SIR—Learning about ageing and the appropriate managementnof older patients is important for all doctors. Thosen>65 years comprise between 15 and 18% of admissions tonUK Emergency Departments [1, 2] and two-thirds of acutenhospital inpatients in England and Wales and 36% of acutenadmissions are >65 [3].nHowever, recent changes to postgraduate medical trainingnwithin the UK [4–6] have resulted in a more streamlinedntraining programme, with the British Geriatrics Societyn(BGS) stating ‘it cannot be assumed that doctors will have furtherneducation in Geriatric Medicine after graduation’ [7].nThis places increased onus on the quality of undergraduateneducation, yet previous research has suggested undergraduatenteaching in geriatrics to be in decline [8]. This assertion wasnbased upon examination of trends in the number of discretenacademic units and modules in the specialty but did not examinenwhat was actually taught to undergraduates [9].nThis study set out to evaluate what medical undergraduatesnin the UK are taught about ageing and geriatricnmedicine and how this teaching is delivered.