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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Physician don't heal thyself
— a descriptive study of impaired older doctors | | Author(s) | C Peisah, K Wilhelm |
| Journal title | International Psychogeriatrics, vol 19, no 5, October 2007 |
| Pages | pp 974-984 |
| Source | http://journals.cambridge.org/jid_IPG |
| Keywords | Cognitive impairment ; Depression ; Doctors ; Employment of older people ; Social surveys ; Australia. |
| Annotation | The growing and welcome interest on issues leading to distress and impairment in younger doctors has not been mirrored by a focus on similar issues in older doctors, which is surprising given the ageing medical workforce. To improve understanding of impairment in older doctors, case records of 41 notifications to the Impaired Registrants Program of the New South Wales Medical Board, Australia of doctors aged 60+ were examined. Impaired older doctors suffered cognitive impairment(54%), substance abuse (29%) and depression (22%), and 17% had two comorbid psychiatric conditions. 12% had frank dementia. Tow work patterns - the "workhorse" and the "dabbler" - were observed, as was a culture of postponed retirement due to a sense of obligation and working "until you drop". Impaired older doctors were found to have higher chronic illness burden, compared with community norms. Almost half were the subject of patient complaints or of poor performance within 10 years of presentation. Older doctors are prone to suffer "the four Ds": dementia, drugs, drink and depression. The authors conclude that there is a need to encourage mature doctors to adapt to age-related changes and illness, and to validate their right to timely and appropriate retirement. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-071114207 A |
| Classmark | E4: ENR: QT2: GC: 3F: 7YA |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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