Practise till you drop: trialing an online intervention for late-career medical practitioners to promote planning for retirement

Many medical practitioners in Australia work beyond the traditional retirement age. Transitioning to retirement is important, however, because the likelihood of poorer clinical outcomes increases with practitioner age. The objective of the present study was to develop and trial an online educational intervention to promote planning for a smoother transition to retirement using a non-randomized control group pre- and post-test design. Medical practitioners aged 55 or over (N = 262, Mage = 61.9) and working 30 or more hours per week were recruited to complete four online modules that addressed a range of topics (physical, health, financial, social, cognitive, and emotional well-being) and encouraged planning for retirement resources. Outcome measures included work centrality, mastery, and goal perceptions across the aforementioned resource domains. Eighty-one doctors completed post-training measures; a control group who completed only the measures (n = 23) and a training group (n = 58). Pre-post comparisons showed no significant changes for the control group. However, the training group at Time 2 showed lower work centrality t(57) = 2.12, (p =.036), and changes to social t(57) = 2.35, (p =.022), emotional t(57) = 3.18, (p =.002) and health goal perceptions t(57) = −2.02, (p =.049). Controlling for baseline scores and self-selection bias determinants, Generalized Linear Model (GLM) analyses indicated a training group increase in mastery scores (β = 0.87, p =.045) and decrease in negative perception of the consequence of not meeting emotional goals (β = −0.37, p =.043). Although not significant, GLM results also showed an increase in resources, three of four health goal domains and financial goals, indicating the potential for positive training effects in future applications of the program. The online retirement planning resource showed promise in promoting a sense of mastery and a reassessment of retirement plans, taking into consideration resource accumulation and goal setting across five specific goal domains. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.