Just a quick reminder to begin with. There are only a few weeks remaining until the end of the CET cycle, so you may want to know that we still have plenty of active CET exercises available online, including two interactive exercises.
I spoke recently about some peer review sessions with some newly qualified optometrists. One of the many subjects raised was how many people, both fellow staff members and patients, would comment on how young they were and, in some cases, ask if ‘a more mature staff member was available’.
I was surprised that this stereotyping still prevailed. In my humble experience, it is all too often those who have been qualified for many years that may develop a thick skin to new ideas and any questions over their clinical decisions and practices. Some years ago, I remember an audit aimed at identifying the underlying source of PD errors which identified the main culprits to be those with many years of PD rule use who perhaps too readily assumed they were accurate in their measurement.
Patients too suffer from age stereotyping. When doing a domiciliary visit, to see carers talking to intelligent elderly patients with fascinating histories and viewpoints as if they were children is truly painful. I will be unbearable when this happens to me, though this may be sooner than I think. I followed the AOP advice this week, and went for a flu jab. The young pharmacist politely told me that the 65s and over should go to their GP!
So, when I learned that 66% of doctors.net members ‘were not confident at all that Matt Hancock, the Secretary for Health and Social Care, understands the risks currently facing health and social care (n=342),’ I could not help but wonder if it is because he looks like a teenager.