Retirement intentions of general practitioners aged 45–65 years

Abstract

Objective: To ascertain the retirement intentions of a cohort of Australian general practitioners. Design and setting: Postal questionnaire survey of members of four Divisions of General Practice in Western Australia, sent out November 2007 – January 2008. Participants: A sample of 178 GPs aged 45–65 years. Main outcome measures: Intention to work in general practice until retirement; reasons for retiring before age 65 years; factors that might encourage working beyond chosen retirement age; and perceived obstacles to working in general practice. Results: 63% of GPs intended to work to at least age 65 years, with men more likely to retire early. Of 63 GPs intending to retire early, 46% gave pressure of work, exhaustion and burnout as reasons for early retirement. Better remuneration, better staffing levels and more general support were incentives to continue working for 46% of the 64 GPs who responded to the question about incentives, and more flexible working hours, part‐time work and reduced workload for 41%. Of 169 participants, 65% gave increasing bureaucracy, poor job satisfaction and disillusionment with the medical system or Medicare as obstacles to working in general practice in Australia, whereas workforce shortage, increasing patient demands and diminishing lifestyle through overwork were obstacles named by 48%. Conclusion: Many GPs are planning to retire early, reflecting an emerging trend among professionals and society generally. Declining job satisfaction, falling workforce numbers, excessive workload and increasing bureaucracy were recurrent concerns of older WA GPs considering premature retirement.

A national survey of turnover intention among general practitioners in China

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that higher levels of turnover intention were associated with lower levels of job satisfaction. 3,[24][25][26][27] This finding suggests that an improvement in job satisfaction could serve as an effective way to prevent or minimize burnout and provide new insight for future studies on ways to improve job satisfaction of GPs while indirectly addressing high turnover problems.…”

Malpractice litigation, workload, and general practitioner retirement

“…Previous research findings suggest this to be true (Charles et al ., 1985; Rohrich et al ., 2008). For example, increasing malpractice costs have previously been found to have a strong influence on retirement plans in surgeons 50 years of age and older (Farley et al ., 2008), and as noted, fear of litigation, actualized malpractice litigation, work overload and lack of staff have been suggested to be factors that may lead to premature GP retirement (Charles et al ., 1985; Rohrich et al ., 2008; Brett et al ., 2009). However, to our knowledge, there exists no previous empirical research on the association between malpractice litigation and realization of retirement plans.…”

“…However, other factors may influence the motivations for GP retirement. For example, manageable workload has been found to be among the incentives for GPs to continue working and likewise GPs in single-handed practices in urban areas seem inclined to retire later (Heath and Sims, 1984; Brett et al ., 2009).…”

GP services in Australia: presentation profiles during usual practice hours and after-hours periods

“…A possible explanation may be that older GPs have less need to pursue a work-family life balance. Research indicates that only 63% of GPs aged 45-65 years in Australia intend to continue working past the age of 65 years; the majority stating poor job satisfaction, bureaucracy and disillusionment with the medical system as disincentives to working in general practice (Brett et al 2009). Furthermore, an increase in the proportion of GPs aged !55 years and a decrease in the proportion aged 35-44 years was observed in Australia over the decade 2005-06 to 2014-15 (Britt et al 2015b).…”