Brief communication: physician interest in volunteer service during retirement.
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.


METHODS
Cross-sectional mailed survey conducted May through July 2006.


METHODS
North Carolina.


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


METHODS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Sloane
Philip D
PD
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 27599, USA. psloane@med.unc.edu
Cohen
Lauren W
LW
Konrad
Thomas R
TR
Williams
Christianna S
CS
Schumacher
John G
JG
Zimmerman
Sheryl
S