#bma

Starting this September, the BMA has moved to officially terming all doctors who have not yet completed their final postgraduate qualifications/examinations Resident doctors rather than Junior doctors. This means that foundation doctors, Core and specialty trainee SHOs and registrars and junior clinical fellows will all come under the umbrella.

The move aims to help clear up the terminology, as the wording "junior" often left patients thinking they were being seen by medical students.

Many have argued for years that the term junior is dismissive and infantilises doctors, particularly registrars who have often worked as doctors for several years. For example, I was a junior doctor for over 10 years before I finished my specialist training as a GP.

I admit it still feels a little strange to me, Brits often don't like changing anything with history, but it helps that resident is a widely used term in the US and Australia as well as other countries.