At a recent meeting of larger medical practices, an issue which comes up frequently is the challenge of recruiting a new partner. And time and time again, a recurring theme is one of differences between generations of physicians.

Those physicians with retirement on the horizon looked at their medical careers as the most important part of their lives – but also looked at new partners coming in as a source of their retirement, with expensive buy-ins and goodwill payments to boot.

The next generation, those physicians in their ‘prime’, have a similar work ethic, but are a little more pragmatic about their careers – there is no golden retirement and there is an expectation that one will have to work harder and harder to keep one’s head above water. As far as relying on new blood for retirement; well, there is little expectation of that. They are satisfied in merely finding new physicians willing to work harder who also want to become equity partners.

And this brings us to the new generation, which recent surveys have described as wanting to work less even if this means not becoming equity partners in a practice and remaining as employees for the long haul. They are more likely to be married to another professional with neither being considered the primary breadwinner and finding satisfaction less in work than in family and lifestyle.

Look in our articles section to come for more in-depth discussion from physicians, managers and experts in the industry on this important and challenging issue.