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BMJ No 7115 Volume 315 Tales from retirement Saturday 25 October 1997 A senior's lecture tour Like others in academic medicine I have been to many places as a visiting lecturer. Latterly, however, I found these visits were unsatisfactory on two counts. Firstly, the places I visited tended to be rather privileged. Secondly, the visits were too short to have much impact. Since retirement I have made several visits designed to lessen these disadvantages. I would like to encourage other retired doctors to try similar ventures. As a general rule I have avoided very rich and very poor countries because for different, but obvious, reasons they don't need me. I prefer a middle income country; one in which they may have the books and some equipment but lack experience and perspective. And, very important if selfish, the whole trip should be in an interesting part of the world. But that is not a major problem because most parts of the world are interesting. My formula is simple: "I will find the money to get to you. You look after us while we are with you." Most of the places my wife and I have visited have a guest house or the equivalent (sometimes it is rather spartan) but they cannot pay our airfares. Occasionally I have obtained a grant but usually we pay our way. By shopping around we can always find something within our means. General lectures are not difficult to arrange in advance. But I prefer to give seminars to small groups. Usually to get things going I offer a few topics of my own, but I encourage the participants to suggest topics of their choosing. And then there are meetings with the VIPs. As I come from McMaster, medical education is a popular subject for such discussions. All of this requires good local organisation. These visits are of course negotiated with a senior person but I try to get this person to delegate the day to day programme to a lecturer or senior registrar who is able and willing to do the job. With the help of such a person I have given 25 lectures and seminars in a month. These junior "executive officers" seem to enjoy their role. Certainly most of them have gone well beyond the call of duty to ensure not just the professional but also the social success of the visit. The duration of the visit is obviously flexible but we find that six to eight weeks is a reasonable limit. I hope that is enough to contribute something which will last; after eight weeks we are tired. As pleasurable as conventional tourism, which of course is a bonus, is the experience of living in the community: the homes and public buildings, the streets and parks, the markets and bazaars, food and entertainment. I suspect that the biggest hurdle to be overcome is diffidence. But the effort is well worth while. After all, in addition to anything else you can offer, you have a commodity that younger people cannot spare - time. E J M Campbell, emeritus professor of medicine, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada Home | Current issue | Past issues | Classified ads | Career Focus | Feedback Collections | About this site | About the BMJ | BMA | Medline