Page 20 - Layout 1

THE WONDERS
OF RETIREMENT
Continued from page 19
of medicine as an object of capital investment, even the growth of
academic health centers as a research enterprise and the marginal-
ization of medical schools teaching mission in favor of research
and clinical enterprises, all helped to highlight that medicine as an thing to do with it, like you can set your watch by the time Strib
occupation had lost its way.”
Today most medical schools in the United States are on an all-
out effort to recapture the “soul of the profession.” The six core
values are the “mantra”: patient care, medical knowledge, practice-
based learning and improvements, interpersonal and communica-
tion skills, professionalism, and system-based practice. At the same
time, the very core of communication, continuity, learning and
patient care is threatened by the paranoia about duty hours. You
cannot have the cake and eat it also, as my Mom used to say. Let
the learner and the teacher be; there is so much to teach and so
much to learn. The overly structured attempts to humanize, pro-
fessionalize and inter-personalize is choking the spirit. The teach-
ing leg for faculty except the ones designated to do that has already infant development program at the University of Texas Health Sci-
gone limp.
The medical schools that have a clear track for climbing the ac-
ademic hill hardly have a half-beaten path on the other side of the
hill. Here are some pearls from personal experience.
Plan at least a year in advance the date of your retirement; at
least two years in advance if you plan to apply for emeritus status.
Don’t spend time and money digitizing old slides and don’t save
them; they deteriorate over time from some chemical change like
photographs in the self- stick albums.
If you have more than one lateral file cabinet to clear, consider
dying on the job. Someone else will not bat an eyelid throwing
your papers in the bin. I had five file cabinets. I would read each
document and save at least a third of them for future use!
If anyone has found a way to dispose of plaques and awards,
please write an article about it. There is nothing you can do with
them as sentimental and precious as they are. Never make the mis-
take of taking them home; there is no wall space.
The moment of exit was set. As a prelude you receive multiple
emails on which you are only copied, from strange departments
in the medical school. “She is good,” one read — I liked that one,
it was about not having any payment arrears. Another one stated:
“Make sure it is turned in.” Someone in my department replied,
“No one has used it in at least 20 years. What does it look like?”
Answer, “It is a rectangular thing that has pins at one end to plug
into something.” By now I was much stressed and frantically threw
everything from my shelf into a box (note, not in the garbage).
Bingo! Here it is — the beautiful key to the copy machine. I
hugged it, it brought back floods of memories of staying till 9 p.m.
copying tests for the NRP course. Then there was the lab coat
which I had not worn in years. My savior, our division adminis-
20 San Antonio Medicine • September 2015
trator, knew exactly where it would be, where the entire division’s
lab coats hung except Dr. Stribly and Dr. McCunin, who you won’t
catch without their coats. Having been in the military has some-
(as we call him fondly) comes to work which drove some of us
crazy.
Finances learn it quickly. There are things like annuity, IRA (It
is not the Irish Republican Army), residuals, you are lucky if you
have a good financial advisor like I have. Beware of many others
who will try to advise. Slow and steady and having a financial whiz
for a husband helps. In spite of all his wisdom I have insisted on
having my finances managed by a separate person, the old adage
don’t put all the eggs in the same basket. One of my goals was to
do the charitable activities that are important to know when I am
in full control of my faculties. It may mean not doing some things
personally but the satisfaction of an endowment for the premature
ence Center has given me enormous joy. It is like leaving a piece
of you connected to something that defined you: care of very tiny
premature babies.
The medical schools have archaic, tedious procedures for the phys-
ical aspects of retiring but have nothing for the emotional and psy-
chological aspects of this human being who is making a life change.
Retiring from patient care was the most difficult transition that took
marathon effort for me. I will talk about that in the next article.
Had I submitted my application for emeritus status, would
things have been easier? Faculty who are eligible for this honor
must consider going through this process years in advance. I was
appointed adjunct faculty. It enabled me to continue the research
work I want to complete. Edward Burns, executive dean of Albert
Einstein College of Medicine, in his advice to a colleague said,
“I think the successful formula for the retiree is to pick the one
aspect of one’s job that ignited the most passion during the career
years, be it clinical work, research or teaching, and devote oneself
totally on a volunteer basis to that endeavor. You’ll never be bored
or lonely while remaining in the environment you’ve always cher-
ished.” I couldn’t have said it better. It will be interesting to hear
our readers’ experiences with retirement or suggestions for the
transition.
Rajam Ramamurthy is professor emeritus in
the department of pediatrics, division of neona-
tology, UTHSCSA. She retired on Sept. 30,
2015. Dr. Ramamurthy continues to pursue her
research interest in the area of prematurity. She is
a past president of the Bexar County Medical So-
ciety and is active in organized medicine.