Life Beyond Medicine: The Joys and Challenges of Physician Retirement

Book Title: Life Beyond Medicine: The Joys and Challenges of Physician Retirement

Book Author: Sharon Rom

Publication Information: Lebanon, NH, University Press of New England, 2019, 177 pp., $19.95, paperback

When I was a community-based family doctor, I would tell medical students that I had the best job in the world. I told them that I could help people, use my hands (delivering babies, first-assisting, lump-and-bump surgery), and best of all, hear great stories from my patients. In return, all that my patients asked for were my skills, knowledge, and dedication; this seemed to me to be a fair and rewarding deal! As my practice evolved and I moved through changes in my academic and clinical roles, the job continued to be as good as I could have hoped for. Why ever leave? Well, over the decades, my spirit has remained willing, but my flesh has grown a bit weak; my body and brain told me that I was no longer able to fully keep up my side of the bargain. This year, I’ve tapered away from clinical work, and am no longer getting paid to be a doctor or teacher. The dreaded word “retired” has been used to describe my current state.

I was excited, therefore, to readLife Beyond Medicine, by Seattle plastic surgeon Sharon Rom, MD, who retooled as a psychiatrist. I was hoping to have a guidebook that would keep me from going off the rails of identity and purpose. It delivered, but only partially. The lead chapter, sadly, was on burnout, and I found it a major turn-off and bummer. The second chapter, “It is Time to Move On,” was no better, and I was starting to get demoralized. Fortunately, I had enough momentum to keep on reading, because the subsequent chapters offered hope, encouragement, reflections, and some useful ideas.

The book’s focus on the diagnosis and treatment of retirement-related mental health disorders is not surprising, given that the author is a psychiatrist. But it can be disconcerting for those of us whose psychological ailments are minor. Dr Rom uses many statistics that don’t offer much insight and are often irrelevant, and the writing was occasionally alarmist regarding all the dangers of boredom and loss of purpose. The author occasionally conflated issues of aging with issues of retirement, which isn’t entirely inappropriate; but the reader can usually manage to tease out the differences. Some of the many quotes and anecdotes scattered through the text ring reassuringly true. Most of the examples seemed to relate more to leaving urban practice than to the challenges I face as a retired rural doctor; but rural issues are so often neglected in the house of medicine that I almost didn’t notice. The sections on what to do after retirement had some good ideas I hadn’t thought of.

The chapter on the emotional challenges of retirement stood out as being nuanced and helpful. The focus on saying goodbye to colleagues was spot-on, but Dr Rom primarily discussed our relationships with other doctors, and left out the office and hospital staff with whom we have grown close. More importantly, she barely mentioned how difficult it is to part with the patients who we have often cared for over 35 or 40 years. We family doctors bond with generations of patients through good times and bad, through birth and death. Those close bonds can be intense, and are not easily parted. Plastic surgeons and psychiatrists may not often have that amazing experience.

I still think that I had the best job in the world, but retirement isn’t bad, either. I’m glad to have had some friends and mentors guide me through the process. This book is not an essential aid, but it may be helpful to family physicians transitioning into retirement.