PGR VOICES: Settling into Usher

In August 2024, I segued away from full-time clinical practice as a trainee geriatrician to finally start my PhD, which is focused on mapping frailty-related outcomes in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936. 

Clinical work has a sense of obvious immediacy. Adjusting to longer time frames has required very different skills. I now have a colour-coded Gantt chart mapping out my years of study, although the ‘data analysis’ section still looks a bit mistily optimistic. I am learning how to plan more thoroughly and think in depth, rather than in haste. Scheduling time to read and think has been a particular revelation. 

As a beginner to research, I am usually the least knowledgeable person in any room (virtual, or literal) and early on, I relied a lot on surreptitiously googling things like ‘what is a GWAS’ or ‘what is a data management plan’ or ‘what makes data granular versus…not granular….’ whilst nodding along in what I hope was a convincingly erudite manner. As I have settled in and gained a few core concepts, this has begun to feel more exciting and less daunting. A full supervision meeting recently was a landmark moment as I could finally see where my project and I fit into a very complicated picture. It has been a delight to meet other early career researchers and see that the challenges faced are pretty universal, as is the love of a well-organised spreadsheet; I’ve found my people, and they like to colour-code things. I am particularly thankful to the fabulous Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC), which has welcomed me as an affiliate and kindly answered many of my questions. 

It can be easy in healthcare to become siloed. I have loved this chance to look over the parapet and meet people from a huge variety of disciplines who are committed to improving the care of older people. How many geriatricians get to look around a robotarium? Or meet people researching AI and ageing? Or attend a session on creative data visualisation? I am reminded daily that there is a whole wide world, and a whole other side to ageing, that happens outside the hospital walls to which I have been accustomed. I meet inspiring people every day and have loved feeling part of a university community again. This has all added a new dimension to the clinical work I still do, and it is so satisfying to feel that I will eventually benefit patients in ways that extend beyond an immediate encounter via my research. 

Many years ago, I remember sitting in a dusty corner of the library, reading an anatomy textbook and being amazed that it was written for people just like me, people at the start of something incredible, and feeling that I was right where I was supposed to be. I often think this now, years later, sitting in the CPHS (Centre for Population Health Sciences) neighbourhood and looking out towards Craigmillar Castle, with a timetable full of opportunities, all designed for people just like me, once again at the start of something incredible.