Arnie is wright. Old women can make love, and they may become Elder. They just dont have babies! It could be a good thing if you have not enough food for a great population! Don't be too much worry about Elders

To train doctors you need both patience and patients.

LOL, true.

My villagers usually become master doctors before mastering anything else. You just have to start them young.
See attached photo of a two year old already half way there.

I have 3 villagers that I train to healing: Manuel, 60 y.o, adept doctor very near to become master; Bénédicte (she is my runner) and Paula, the youngest, whom healing is the only skill. And I absolutely want that they become Master Doctor! So I bring them to study the strange plants... but, oups! Manuel makes a baby to Paula and she is "out" for a long time! Then a villager rings the Gong and it takes health! Yippee! I bring quickly Manuel to heal sick villagers but... Bénédicte is already here! I bring him to another one but...she is already here! And Manuel cannot improve his skill! And what a frustration!
The moral is: 1°: take care when you put a male and a female on the same task!
2°: some time, the runners are a little bit annoying! especialy for the other healers

PS: one hour later, studying strange plants, Manuel is Master Doctor!!

I mentioned somewhere else in the forum how funny it is to watch two or three doctors all rushing to be the first to cure a patient. They will bustle self-importantly up, then the ones who are "beaten" will stand around looking bewildered for a little while. You can almost see them thinking, "Why call me when there's nobody ill?" They will usually then wander off on some no-doubt important task such as washing their socks or inspecting the gong encasement.

The worst is when one of your doctors is a runner! He is every time the first on place to heal! The others are left in the lurch. If I was they, I would be upset. And I suppose they are, so I bring them to a strange plant!

Manuel is Esteemed Elder to day! As any self-respecting doctor, he spend his time in the pond! But he deserves it

LOL
I have several Dr.s and I have seen mine bunch up in "Dr." mode and walk around in a circle or pace back and forth for a long while before figuring out the task was already taken care of.

My village has reached the max. capacity of 90, so that's when I take the opportunity to try to up everyone's breeding skills -- the villagers can "go indoors" to their hearts' content and I don't have to worry about too many babies and too many moms out of commission. It's actually rather amusing... I'm constantly running around dragging people away from doing laundry (is there any point to that?) and putting them toward something useful, and all the while I'm hearing *smooch!* *smooch!* *smooch!* Aside from the obvious benefits of not having more babies, the same couples can smooch over and over without the female wandering off to nurse a baby.

And can someone tell me how it's possible for a two year old to be adept at something? Is it possible to have them study that young??