Résumé
Background: since 2019, ageing is recognized as a global issue according to the WHO. However, in France, since Geriatrics is a residency specialty available for post graduate students, there was between 13 to 17% of unfulfilled positions by future residents each year. Aim: to evaluate the social representation (SR) and stereotypes of Geriatricians among medical students, residents, and graduated physicians to more understand this lack of attractiveness.Methods: the web-based survey was based on hierarchical evocation methods with a qualitative question toevaluate the SR of Geriatrician and with sociodemographic questions. Each respondent’s SR of Geriatrician was graded from 1 to 5 (from 1: very positive to 5: very negative SR). Statistical analyses were based on the Reinert method.Results: overall, 375 answers were analyzed. The SR of Geriatricians included positive elements related to the personal and professional qualities of Geriatricians, contrasted with negative stereotypes related to the perceived daily life and practice characteristics of Geriatricians. Two variables seemed to influence this SR: professional experience in geriatrics (p=0.022) and having been able to consider choosing geriatrics as a residency specialty (p<0.001). Discussion and conclusion: the negative stereotypes could be related to poor knowledge of the profession. Our study is the first to evaluate stereotypes of Geriatricians by medical students, residents, and graduated physicians, to provide a synthetic picture. These results highlighted the importance of giving to medical students more professional opportunities to discover geriatrics. We must take up this challenge to improve our attractiveness as a residency choice.