Retirement is a Great Time To Celebrate an Outstanding Career as a Doctor
Great physicians are a boon to any community, whether the community is a large healthcare system or a rural town. You will see her working with coworkers to ensure that the entire system benefits. You will see him visiting with patients at high school football games and other community events. Your doctor, whether a colleague or healthcare provider, is someone you want to celebrate with when they retire. Sometimes our gratitude is worth a simple postcard, but when you have worked with or been treated by someone in a way that positively changed your life, you want to do something more than the bare minimum.
An outstanding physician's career impacts civic organizations, healthcare organizations, universities, and local governments. Research over the years may have changed the way we approach healthcare. Teaching other doctors may have resulted in a benefit to society through more than one doctor developing a tremendous career.
Ways to Celebrate a Doctor's Retirement
As we have discussed, the ways to celebrate a doctor's retirement are as varied as the ways that individual doctor has impacted you. Were you a patient? Are you a colleague? Were you not personally involved with the retiring physician but your organization was and you are responsible for giving a community celebration of a career well done?
Small Celebrations
You can start celebrating your doctor's career by thinking about what you appreciated about their presence on the job. Did he take time to help other doctors learn and get started? Did she really take time to listen to you when you had a complicated health issue? Write down what you appreciate about the actions and attitudes they have had. These memories are powerfully positive affirmations in their own right and will give you a good idea of how to celebrate them more.
Take time to build up any larger celebrations through the smaller gifts and smaller moments. A favorite candy with a thank you card several weeks before retiring could be a good way to let them know you are thinking of them and to prepare the ground for further celebration when the time is right.
Planning the Full Celebration
Small moments and affirmations are essential but they are not enough to truly celebrate a tremendous career of service and leadership that many MDs provide. As you are giving affirmation and thinking through the reasons to celebrate, you are setting the stage to give him or her the perfect retirement gift.
The Perfect Retirement Gift
What is the perfect retirement gift?
In a New York Times article answering this question, "The 23 Best Retirement Gifts," they cover a lot of gifts that may be useful or comedic. However, none of these gifts are really unique, custom-made, or personal for the individual receiving them. Sure, a retiree may want to have cozy slippers for hanging out at home, but you want to give them something that reminds them of the work they did, the impact they had, and the fact that their career mattered.
Most physicians don't spend decades working to help people with their health without having a deep, meaningful connection with their careers. You want to give them a gift that will have lasting impact to show the lasting impact their career had on others.
Unique Gifts
Some jobs are worth remembering, some are not. For some jobs, you want a gift that helps you escape while a career spent helping people and changing medicine is one you want to remember with fondness and with a sense of importance. It was a unique career, so you will want a unique gift.
Don't celebrate a physician's retirement by giving him a set of golf clubs that he could buy from any shop. Don't buy her a classic traveler's guide that has no uniqueness. Do find something that will not look like any other gift that he or she will have at home. Give them a gift that is unique and celebrates a long, successful career.
Custom Gifts
Custom gifts are not only unique, but they are also uniquely crafted for the individual's story and occasion. If you are going to get something she can buy at any store, add something custom to it to make the gift different from what is available publicly. Add a plaque to the gift that mentions the years of service. Customize the gift to show how the individual has served and impacted your community with their service as a physician.
Personalize
When you have a unique gift that has been customized, the final touch to make a truly great retirement gift is to add personalization to the custom gift. Inscriptions, mentions of key projects the doctor has been involved in, and mentions of the location they served are all items that can be included to make the gift stand out and provide a lasting reminder of the work, impact, and legacy of a great doctor's career.

Our Doctor-Retirement Gifts
At DIY Awards, all our crystal plaques are unique gifts for many special occasions, and we have custom-made, personalized inscriptions for each one of these occasions. When you want to celebrate a doctor's retirement, consider the vertical crystal with caduceus symbol in background or the flame-shaped crystal for doctors.
These crystal awards are fully customizable and their elegant design will work well with many different tastes in decoration and design. It is not just an award with a plaque on it, with the right inscription, these become personalized emblems of the legacy that was left behind by a long, storied career providing medical expertise to a community.
These crystal awards capture the light of any display case or room where they are held and showcase the appreciation that you have for the doctor's work and leadership. Whether you are providing a gift as a reminder of appreciation for when they saved your life or as an appreciation for stepping up to lead your team, whatever the reason, you can customize these plaques to give them a memorable gift that will hold it's power in the golden years of retirement ahead.