Chronicle of Medicine - The results of a new survey indicate that 48 percent of physicians between 50 and 65 years of age are planning to reduce or end their clinical practice in the next 1 to 3 years. The findings also suggest that many older physicians believe that their younger counterparts do not have the work ethic they do.

The survey suggests that many older physicians are simply unhappy with the changes that have taken place in medicine over the years.

The results of the survey, which included 1,170 respondents, show that 24 percent of older physicians are planning to leave clinical practice all together in the next 1 to 3 years. Specifically, 14 percent said they were planning on retiring, 7 percent said they were looking for a medical job in a non-patient care setting, and 3 percent said they were seeking a job in a non-medical field.

For those physicians not leaving clinical practice, many said they would make changes to reduce the amount of patients they treat. For instance, 12 percent said they would begin working part-time, 8 percent said they planned to stop taking new patients or markedly reduce their patient load, and 4 percent expressed a desire to work on a temporary basis.

When asked about the work ethic of physicians entering practice today, 68 percent of the respondents said that these younger doctors are not as dedicated or as hard working as physicians who entered practice 20 to 30 years ago.

Fifty-seven percent of older physicians said they would not recommend medicine as a career to their own children. Similarly, 44 percent said they would not select medicine as career if they were starting out today.

The most ominous finding is that about one half of physicians surveyed plan to either abandon patient care in the next 1 to 3 years, or significantly reduce the number of patients they see.


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