Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
Lancet Healthy Longev. 2024 Nov;5(11):100644. doi: 10.1016/j.lanhl.2024.100644. Epub 2024 Oct 4.
Population ageing is a global occurrence. Unfortunately, the shortage of health professionals with geriatric competencies is a major factor restricting high-quality care for older people worldwide. Strengthening the knowledge and skills of the health workforce to better respond to the needs of older people is a major global priority. Geriatricians can play a pivotal role in reorienting care for older people towards an integrated and person-centred care system focused on functional ability, preventive strategies, and age-friendly services. The current scenario requires efforts to be directed towards establishing a standardised competency-based definition of a geriatrician to allow for an accurate estimation of the existing workforce with adequate training in geriatrics as crucial resources to facilitate the paradigm shift. This Personal View, supported by the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics and the European Geriatric Medicine Society, proposes a standardised definition of a geriatrician based on expected competencies and roles and a precise description of the essential features of geriatric medicine. By reducing ambiguities and offering a competency-based framework, the current standardisation approach is expected to facilitate better support, monitoring, and allocation of resources for improving care for older people worldwide.
人口老龄化是一个全球性现象。不幸的是，缺乏老年医学专业知识的卫生专业人员是限制全球高质量老年人护理的主要因素。加强卫生工作者的知识和技能，以更好地满足老年人的需求，是全球的一个主要优先事项。老年医学专家可以在重新调整老年人护理方向方面发挥关键作用，转向以功能能力、预防策略和适合老年人的服务为重点的综合和以人为本的护理系统。目前的情况需要努力建立一个基于标准化能力的老年医学专家的定义，以便能够准确估计具有足够老年医学培训的现有劳动力，将其作为促进范式转变的重要资源。本文观点得到了国际老年学和老年医学协会以及欧洲老年医学学会的支持，提出了一个基于预期能力和角色的老年医学专家的标准化定义，并对老年医学的基本特征进行了精确描述。通过减少歧义并提供基于能力的框架，预计当前的标准化方法将有助于更好地支持、监测和分配资源，以改善全球老年人的护理。
