The MDTea podcast started out six years ago, with us wanting to create a place where we could foster multiprofessional learning around the care of older patients. And after 100 episodes that is still very much our aim. But we’ve decided to do something unique and exciting for Series 11 to explore what it really means to be part of the team.

We want to spend time over the next ten episodes exploring what each of our colleagues in the MDT do on a daily basis to provide older patients with the best possible care. What is the first thing they do at work each day? What is their favourite thing about their job? What are the challenges and rewards? And how does their job help serve our older population? 

It’s important we ask these questions. Because despite our best efforts to work as a fully integrated team on the wards, we all know that it is easy to become trapped in our own little bubbles. Both in the separate training we receive depending on our professions, and the areas on the wards where we tend to work only with other people doing the same role as us. 

And so the problem remains. Lots of us don’t know what our colleagues in the MDT actually do. Which is why we’re spending this new series looking at “A Day in the Life” of each of the vital healthcare professionals responsible for managing older patients coming into our hospitals.