AGING WELL IN EMERGENCY MEDICINE INTEREST GROUP
Mentorship for the Late Career Physician Joshua Silverberg, MD and Peter Gruber, MD
M
entorship does not come with an expiration date. It can be a helpful tool for those in the twilight of their medical careers just as it is for those at the onset of a career. For the physician starting out, mentorship has been shown to lead to an enriched career with increased connections, improved productivity, and career satisfaction.1 Whether mentorship comes as a guiding hand leading us through transitions or a trusted voice counseling us on life after medicine, it can serve to help us make thoughtful decisions. We would like to make the argument that having a The same guiding hand during the community tail end of our careers can be of great benefit. that we build
to support each other throughout our careers can help us navigate our lives post-career.
Retirement may be the finish line, but how we spend the last portion of our careers can define our legacies. Often this is a time defined by impactful transitions and lateral moves toward roles in which we have less experience. Working in the emergency room is often physically draining, defined by hours spent on our feet and performing rigorous procedures. That is one of the reasons it is common for ER physicians to shift toward academics and administrative tasks in place of clinical roles as we age. But determining which niche fits both our unique experiences and personalities to create the most fulfilling transition can be very dauting without the guidance of a mentor. A well thought out plan including the mentorship of seasoned and retired physician colleagues can help make the transition from full time to part time work or retirement more rewarding and less of a shock.2-4 The closer we find ourselves to retirement, the more we may find ourselves thinking about what we’ve accomplished and our ongoing projects. As many of us have turned to mentors during mid-career for advice on accepting increased responsibilities and creating new roles, there is need for continuing those established mentor relationships when it comes to the handing off of responsibilities at the end of our careers. As ER doctors, we are concerned on a daily basis about handing off responsibilities at sign out and know all too well how many things can go awry at the end of a clinical shift. On a larger scale, knowing which pitfalls to avoid and how best to select replacements will help with the ease of transition and even help preserve the integrity of our projects and studies. Advice
from someone who has successfully been through this transition can also extend to how to properly teach our replacements to take up the mantle. In a 2015 article for Annals of Emergency Medicine titled “To Retire or Not: That is the Question,” Dr. Mark L. DeBard details the difficulties of navigating end of career choices without the guidance of a mentor.5 As an aging physician in a young specialty, he had no one to seek advice from. Questions as simple as how to time retirement can become overwhelming when there is no one who can give guidance. It is important to note that physician retirement planning and timing is not only beneficial to the physician but to patient safety and the healthcare system. 47% of active physicians in 2021 in the U.S. were over 55 years old and over 40% of physicians will be more than 65 years old in the next decade.6-8 Emergency medicine, while being a younger specialty, has many physicians joining this age group. Now is the time to learn how to counsel each other in how to approach these life events and avoid interruptions in care as we move away from the important work we do. Much of the guidance we receive throughout our careers from mentors relates to financial savings. The setting up of savings plans, retirement funds, and even passive income opportunities is a popular topic among mentors and mentees in the medical community. There is often, however, a dearth of guidance when it comes to the disbursement of the funds and transitioning expenses to meet the new requirements of retirement. We spend our whole careers saving for retirement, it would be a shame to go into retirement uninformed about our options. Those who have retired before us can help guide us from their vantage point. Countinued on page 24 >>
Mentorship does not come with an expiration date. COMMON SENSE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023
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