Working for the elderly

October 2005

With geriatric medicine growing in importance, The Monash Ageing Research Centre is encouraging more doctors into the field.

Report: Diane Squires
Photography: Melissa Di Ciero

An ageing Australian population means research into geriatric medicine is becoming increasingly important, and the Monash University Ageing Research Centre was established to provide ongoing tangible benefits to older people in recognition of this need.

Holistic approach: Professor Barbara Workman heads the Monash University Ageing Centre that brings several areas together.

Set up in 1999 to coincide with the International Year of Older Persons, the centre is a collaboration between Monash and Southern Health and examines all aspects of geriatric medicine.

Professor of geriatric medicine at Monash University Barbara Workman says the centre brings together the Academic Unit of Geriatric Medicine, the Aged Mental Health Research Group, the Geriatric Research Unit and the Allied Health Research Group, providing a dedicated centre for ageing research across the university.

"We had all these disparate areas working independently, but we didn't have as much strength working in small independent areas, so we took the initiative to bring all these areas together into a single centre, which allows for greater recognition by the university," Professor Workman says.

She says that as well as providing a dedicated research centre to benefit Australia's ageing population, staff within the centre are able to implement the findings of research immediately, as all researchers are also clinicians working within Southern Health.

"The centre gives ageing research a visible face, and, because the research we do has clinical applications, we can introduce it into practice very quickly so that patients benefit almost immediately."

Monash, in acknowledgment of the need for research into ageing, is looking to make it one of its research platforms. In 2004, the university held a workshop to gauge interest in ageing research across the university and to build links between departments.

"Ageing research is not just a big deal for medicine," Professor Workman says. "It also has implications for engineering, sociology, design and so on -- all areas have an impact on the elderly."

Professor Workman acknowledges geriatric care is not "a sexy area of work" for young medical practitioners and says the centre has been looking into why there have been so few young doctors keen to work with the elderly. "There is a lot of literature that shows medical students don't see working with older people as a career option," she says.

So she was surprised when interviews with 20 interns in Melbourne hospitals, conducted by centre staff, revealed that young doctors had few negative attitudes towards treating them.

"I had thought young doctors would have a negative bias towards geriatric medicine. However, our study didn't show as many negative attitudes as we were expecting.

"Time and again when we have young health professionals coming through the aged care wards, they say it is one of the best things they have done, because it gives them a holistic approach to managing a patient.

"It's not just addressing a single issue such as how a particular organ is functioning -- it is very satisfying."

It is a complex problem that Professor Workman believes may be complicated by the limited exposure medical students have to aged care.

"Many students don't actually know what geriatric medicine involves," she says. "Often they only see it when they see geriatricians assessing patients for entry to residential care units, but that's only a small part of what we do. It's not until they spend time working in aged care that they find it interesting.

"But the numbers of doctors applying to pursue a career in geriatric medicine are increasing. This seems to have happened over the past five years and may explain why our research is at variance to previously published research on career preferences in aged care."

From next year, Monash medical students must undertake a six-week placement in aged care. Professor Workman says this is to encourage younger people to consider a career in geriatric medicine, but more importantly to ensure all doctors are prepared for a growing ageing demographic.

"As the population ages, every doctor is going to have to look after ageing patients," she says. "This aged care placement makes sure everyone has basic knowledge and skill in looking after older people.

For information on the Monash Ageing Research Centre, go to the Monash Ageing Research Centre website.