Are retired physicians suitable for the coaching of clerks?

Engaging Retired Physicians as Educators: Motivations and Experiences of Participants in a Novel Educational Program

PURPOSE

Physician retirement has important impacts on medical learners as well as retiring physicians themselves. Retiring physicians take with them a wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and expertise and can feel a loss of identity, lack of fulfillment, and reduced social connectedness after leaving the institution. To address this, a novel educational program providing retired physicians with renewed educational roles was implemented in 2018 within a university-associated pediatric department. This study sought to explore the retired physicians' experiences in this new intergenerational program, including their motivations to reengage as educators after retirement.

METHOD

The authors designed this study using qualitative description. Semistructured interviews were conducted in the Department of Pediatrics of McGill University in 2019 with retired physicians who participated in the educational program's inaugural year. Role theory and psychosocial development theory were used to design the interview guide and inform the thematic analysis. Iterative analysis of the interview transcripts was deductive and inductive.

RESULTS

Of the 8 retired physicians who participated in the program's first cohort, 7 participated in this study. Analysis of the data yielded 4 main themes: a challenging shift to retirement, a desire for reengagement after retirement, role dissonance, and gaining by giving. The retired physicians were motivated to engage as educators. Although they experienced some discomfort in their new nonclinical roles, they described their experiences as fulfilling, with benefits such as intellectual stimulation, social connectedness, and a sense of purpose.

CONCLUSIONS

Retired physicians' motivations to reengage academically and their experiences contributing to educational activities in this program highlight the importance of supporting physicians during the transition to retirement and establishing formal programs to engage retired physicians as educators.

Mentoring is in the 'I' of the beholder: supporting mentors in reflecting on their actual and preferred way of mentoring

BACKGROUND

An important strategy to support the professional development of mentors in health professions education is to encourage critical reflection on what they do, why they do it, and how they do it. Not only the 'how' of mentoring should be covered, but also the implicit knowledge and beliefs fundamental to the mentoring practice (a mentor's personal interpretative framework). This study analyzed the extent to which mentors perceive a difference between how they actually mentor and how they prefer to mentor.

METHODS

The MERIT (MEntor Reflection InstrumenT) survey (distributed in 2020, N = 228), was used to ask mentors about the how, what, and why of their mentoring in two response modes: (1) regarding their actual mentoring practice and (2) regarding their preferred mentoring practice. With an analysis of covariance, it was explored whether potential discrepancies between these responses were influenced by experience, profession of the mentor, and curriculum-bound assessment requirements.

RESULTS

The averaged total MERIT score and averaged scores for the subscales 'Supporting Personal Development' and 'Monitoring Performance' were significantly higher for preferred than for actual mentoring. In addition, mentors' experience interacted significantly with these scores, such that the difference between actual and preferred scores became smaller with more years of experience.

CONCLUSIONS

Mentors can reflect on their actual and preferred approach to mentoring. This analysis and the potential discrepancy between actual and preferred mentoring can serve as input for individual professional development trajectories.