Brief Communication: Physician Interest in Volunteer Service during Retirement

2 September 2008 | Volume 149 Issue 5 | Pages 317-322

Background: Baby boomers approaching retirement will include unprecedented numbers of physicians, many of whom want to remain productive.

Objective: To determine interest in health care–related volunteering during retirement among physicians trained to provide general medical care to adults.

Design: Cross-sectional mailed survey conducted May through July 2006.

Setting: North Carolina.

Participants: 910 physicians, 55 years of age or older, whose primary specialty involved direct, nonsurgical care of adults.

Measurements: Current volunteerism and future interest in selected activities.

Results: Of the respondents, 89.8% were male and 87.4% were white; 57.4% worked full-time, 21.7% worked part-time, and 21.0% were retired. Of current retirees, 37.1% expressed interest in volunteering. Areas of greatest interest were medical teaching, working in free medical clinics, and international care. Strong incentives included staying mentally active (67.3%) or involved in medicine (61.2%) and contributing to society (60.5%). Substantial barriers included concerns about malpractice (61.5%) and paperwork or bureaucracy (46.0%). The majority of respondents (66.7%) felt that lack of payment would not influence volunteering.

Limitations: The 59% overall response rate and exclusion of unlicensed retired physicians limit study generalizability. The data were provided by self-response and could not be independently validated.

Conclusion: Retired physicians are a potential source of manpower that could contribute to provision of health care, particularly in medical teaching and clinical care of underserved persons.

Editors' Notes Context How might the departure of "baby boomers" from the physician workforce affect the physician supply in the United States? Contribution This survey involved 910 physicians 55 years of age or older living in North Carolina. Many self-reported high interest in volunteering during retirement: 43% of the 57% who were working full-time, 33% of the 22% who were working part-time, and 38% of the 21% who were already retired. Their interests usually included teaching and working in free medical clinics rather than working for committees or in hospice or long-term care settings. Perceived barriers to volunteering were malpractice and paperwork. Implication Programs that recognize and facilitate retired physicians as potential contributors to health care provision are needed. —The Editors

 

Author and Article Information

From the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, Department of Family Medicine, and School of Social Work, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and The Center for Aging Studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland.

Grant Support: By Pioneer Award PIO-04-1004 from the Alzheimer's Association.

Reproducible Research Statement: Study protocol and statistical code: Available from psloane{at}med.unc.edu. Data set: Not available.

Potential Financial Conflicts of Interest: None disclosed.

Requests for Single Reprints: Philip D. Sloane, MD, MPH, The Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 725 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, CB 7590, Chapel Hill, NC 27599; e-mail, psloane{at}med.unc.edu.

Current Author Addresses: Drs. Sloane, Konrad, Williams, and Zimmerman and Ms. Cohen: The Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 725 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, CB 7590, Chapel Hill, NC 27599.

Dr. Schumacher: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250.

Author Contributions: Conception and design: P.D. Sloane, C.S. Williams, J.G. Schumacher, S. Zimmerman.

Analysis and interpretation of the data: L.W. Cohen, T.R. Konrad, C.S. Williams, J.G. Schumacher.

Drafting of the article: P.D. Sloane, L.W. Cohen, S. Zimmerman.

Critical revision of the article for important intellectual content: L.W. Cohen, T.R. Konrad, C.S. Williams, J.G. Schumacher, S. Zimmerman.

Final approval of the article: P.D. Sloane, L.W. Cohen, T.R. Konrad, C.S. Williams, J.G. Schumacher, S. Zimmerman.

Statistical expertise: C.S. Williams.

Obtaining of funding: P.D. Sloane.

Collection and assembly of data: L.W. Cohen.