Professional Development and Late Career Transitions in Pediatric Hematology/Onco

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As faculty at academic institutions are living longer and remaining productive, many are facing challenges of transitioning in the later stages of their career. Professors are being forced to retire and have little guidance or mentorship as to their options. Challenges for senior faculty are unique since preparation requires consideration of both personal and academic aspects of the transition to new roles that can include but are not limited to retirement. The American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO) is a multidisciplinary organization of members who study and treat childhood cancer and blood disorders. In 2008, a workshop for mid- and late career members was conducted at the annual meeting for the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology that functioned as a systematic needs assessment for these stages of professional development. The results of this workshop, which included a survey component, identified a set of important topics, including work-life balance, transition and succession, management and finances, and keeping up to date with the field. In this R13 application, we are requesting funds to support a workshop that will be open to all ASPHO members and addresses concerns about late career transition that were raised in the previous 2008 workshop on mid- to late-career transitions. The funds will be used to pay for travel expenses, meeting registration, and hotel costs of the invited speakers who would not otherwise attend the ASPHO meeting. We hypothesize that greater awareness of these issues and practical solutions suggested by experts will provide important mentoring and advice to the other members of ASPHO on 1) how to best prepare for late career transitions and 2) what factors to take into consideration when making these critical life and career decisions. We also hypothesize that Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologists can lead the way and pioneer novel approaches to help late career stage professionals in other fields of academic medicine.