The ageing practitioner: ANZCA's recommendations.

CONCLUSIONS: Practitioners should recognise that planning for retirement is part of good management of a medical career, and that the ageing process will inevitably compromise their ability to treat patients safely unless they retire at the appropriate time. Planning should include adequate financial preparation, and cultivation of interests and friends outside medicine. Practitioners should also realise that insight is likely to be compromised, so that they should seek colleagues who are trusted to advise them if/when they begin to lose competency. Lastly all practitioners should ensure that they consult a General Practitioner frequently, and that they have arranged all the proper legal instructions such as a Will, a Power of Attorney and an Advanced Health Directive.The ANZCA recommendations concerning ageing specialists have wide application to all medical specialties, not just for anaesthetists, and therefore all Medical Colleges should generate their own specific recommendations for ageing practitioners and the general effects of fatigue particularly for aged practitioners. PMID: 26635370 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Australasian Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Australas Psychiatry Source Type: research