A report in the UK has called for the term ‘junior doctor’ to be abandoned, arguing it is demeaning and anachronistic to doctors early in their careers.

Many so-called ‘junior doctors’ are in their 30s and 40s, doing highly responsible, skilled work, yet sound as though they are inexperienced, says the report’s author, orthopaedic surgeon Dr Scarlett McNally.

Her report What should we call junior doctors? was commissioned by Health Education England to investigate what term was suitable.

A major problem was that patients and other staff interpreted the words ‘junior doctor’ to mean a medical student, she found.