Reflections on Geriatric Care During An Edinburgh Observership
- secretariat012
- Jan 7
- 2 min read
Author: Ian Perera
Affiliation: Jagiellonian University Medical College/Research And Teaching Assistant, Poland
Walking into the Acute Medical Unit was formidable. I passed bay after bay of patients on our way to our next consultation, with alarms seemingly going off in every corner. Staff nimbly shifted through the corridors in all directions while patients regularly flowed in and out of rooms, curtains opening and closing behind them. It was my first day at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh as part of an observership on how geriatrics is practiced in Scotland. We reached the corner of a bay to find an older woman receiving oxygen, lying in bed with significant swelling of her lower limbs. The consultant knelt next to her and introduced himself, speaking slowly and clearly, and an atmosphere of calm descended. The woman replied slowly, in gasps, and the consultant listened intently. I looked over to the whiteboard over her bed, where her name was filled in and, surprisingly to me, how she likes her tea. After the consultant finished examining her, he shared his thoughts with the woman. She smiled weakly, grateful for the interaction and clarity in her care plan. I appreciated these moments of humanity throughout my stay.Â
I rotated across various settings across Edinburgh, from inpatient services to hospital-at-home and the day hospital. I saw patients in various states, from the woman mentioned earlier, to an older man experiencing delirium wandering across a hospital ward, to a lady at home trying to manage her shortness of breath. Regardless of the physician or the setting, the patients they interacted with were treated with dignity, regardless of whether they were fully able to comprehend the magnitude of what was happening to them. They lent sympathetic ears to caregivers as well, later working with social workers in multidisciplinary team meetings to establish needs and support. The importance of these multidisciplinary interactions highlighted the strengths of each discipline and how their complementary skills can reap major benefits for the patients that they work with. Thanks to Prof. Susan Shenkin, I was able to see the broad spectrum of geriatric care available for older adults in Scotland and met several wonderful medics along the way.Â
I left Edinburgh full of inspiration for what geriatric medicine can achieve. Despite the pressures of interacting with complex patients with numerous needs occasionally being overwhelming, I experienced the value of sharing those experiences in a team.
Disclosure: A version of this blog post was previously published on the University of Edinburgh website and is reproduced here for the ECGI Blog.
