Family Doctors Say Goodbye: Shifting Grounds and Relationships

Preface
Contents
Editors and Contributors
About the Editors
About the Contributors
Chapter 1: Changing Tides: Introductory Reflections
	Background
	What This Book Isn’t
	Why Leave?
	The Processes of Saying Goodbye
	What’s Coming?
	References
Chapter 2: Cultivating a Goodbye to Harvest a Hello
	Thinking of Beginnings
	It’s All in the Neighborhood
	The Long Goodbye
	Saying “Hello”
	Epilogue
	Reference
Chapter 3: Leaving Practice in the Era of Independence
	General Practice in the 1950s
	Preparing for Retirement
	Working for the Man
	The Effects of Retirement on Communities
	Being Married to One’s Practice
	Leaving Is Hard
	References
Chapter 4: A Black Woman Department Chair Approaches Retirement
Chapter 5: A Gathering of Crumbs, Stones, and Crows
	Part 1: Repositioning
	Part 2: Renewal
	Part 3: Reset
	Part 4: Refresh
Chapter 6: A Stuttering Course to Retirement
	Initial Thoughts: “This Is Paramedic Joe”
	A Career Trajectory
	Reflections on “Being Driven”
	The Pandemic and Returning to Clinical Medicine
	A Delight in Slowing Down … Allowing Time with the Trivial
	Decision
Chapter 7: For the Curious: A Brief Literature Review
	Why Do Doctors Depart from Practice?
	If Retirement Is a “Problem,” What Is the Solution?
	What About Younger Physicians?
	Has Medicine Paid Much Attention to Ending Clinical Relationships?
	What About When Retirement Is the Reason for the Doctor’s Departure?
	What Might Be the Meanings of Retirement for Men and Women Doctors Toward the End of Their Careers?
	What’s the Impact on Institutions of Physician Retirement?
	What Might Recommendations for “Flexible, Agentive, and Respectful Retirement Transitions” [7] Mean?
	What Happened to the Relationships in all This Retirement Talk?
	So, Is Saying Goodbye Really Hard?
	What About Other Family Doctors’ Experience of Loss?
	Was There an Occasional Explicit Recognition of Loss?
	What About Other Specialties? Do They Address the Loss of Relationship When Doctors Move or Retire?
	What About Psychiatry? Do Psychiatrists Address Their Feelings of Loss?
	How Does the End of the Relationship Between Patient and Physician Compare Between Family Medicine and Psychiatry?
	Are There any Narratives Co-written by Clinicians and Patients?
	Does the Perspective of Autoethnography Have Anything to Offer Clinicians Thinking About Considering Retirement?
	Can Retirement Be an Act of Resistance?
	References
Chapter 8: Facing Retirement: Grieving the Loss of Clinical Relationships
	Introduction
	Stories
	Lucy: Background
	Doing it “Right”
	The Therapist’s Perspective: Eydie
		Saying Goodbye Is Hard!
	Lucy: Reflection on These Losses
		Eydie
		Lucy
		Eydie
	Lucy: Writing About Karen
	Eydie: Comment
		Lucy
	Eydie: Closure
	Lucy
		Eydie
		Lucy
	References
Chapter 9: Retiring or Just Tiring?
Chapter 10: Shy But Not Retiring
	Balancing Action with Reflection
	Investing in Old and New Relationships
	Taking Time to Create Space for New Learning and Meaning
	Detaching from the Outcomes of Actions
	Being Open to Emergence in the Face of Uncertainty
	Preparing to Let Go
	References
Chapter 11: When God Gives You a Good Kick in Your Rear End
Chapter 12: Leaving My Patients, Losing Myself
	My Medical Career
	Post Script
	Reference
Chapter 13: Shifting Grounds and Relationships: Some Parting Thoughts
	What Is the Future?
	References
Index