EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES IN GERIATRIC MEDICINE

In geriatric medicine there is a particular need to teach: in the first place to promote the further development of the specialty and in the second place to ensure that co-workers in nursing, social work and the ancillary therapeutic professions understand the problems of their aged patients. The considerable development in teaching medical undergraduates in the past few years is described. Many special diplomas in nursing and social work requiring teaching in ageing and illness in old age are described. These and other educational opportunities must be seized by geriatricians, whose consultants ' contracts must make proper allowance for this educational function. Teaching is an important part of all types of medical practice. The physician, if he teaches no-one else, must be constantly instructing his patients in carrying out the treatment that he advises and in methods of avoiding illness. In some branches of medicine, however, teaching has a much greater relevance than this and geriatric medicine is among these. There are a number of reasons why this is the case: in the first place, geriatrics is still a developing specialty and like most of its predecessors its development has encountered a good deal of opposition and resistance from colleagues in other longe