Poor quality of posts in clinical rheumatology: a cause of failure to advance the specialty.

Rheumatic diseases are a major medical and socioeconomic problem in the Western World.' They pose problems not only in terms of their aetiology and treatment2-4 but also in attracting staff to the "Cinderella" specialty of clinical rheumatology.5 This difficulty in recruitment has been interpreted as partly, if not largely, due to the chronic nature of the diseases.6 The association of rheumatology with physical medicine or rehabilitation70 has also been criticised1' 12 and has been considered to be unfavourable to recruitment to both rheumatology and rehabilitation. We assessed the opinions of junior hospital doctors in both Scotland and England on the job descriptions provided for posts advertised in the British Medical Journal.