Scarlett McNally: Introducing the term “resident doctor” to replace “ȷunior doctor”

At the recent annual representative meeting in Belfast, BMA members voted to rename “junior doctors” as “resident doctors.”1 I was there as the motion was passed and admit to feeling a pang of defeat but also a calm sense of closure.In 2018 I was invited to investigate what to call junior doctors. I produced my report in 2022, including explanations, data, survey results, naming options, and recommendations.2 The term “junior doctor” was historically used for doctors in postgraduate training programmes—in foundation, core, or specialty training. I accept that my favoured term proposed in my report, “postgraduate doctor,” found insufficient support.We should all now get behind the term “resident doctor” and finally stop the demeaning and binary concept of some doctors being labelled as junior. The historical junior/senior concept also ignores the 94 000 doctors in SAS (specialist, associate specialist, and specialty) roles or locally employed doctor posts, who together outnumber…
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