Evaluation of job satisfaction of practice staff and general practitioners: an exploratory study

Katja Goetz,Bjoern Broge,Jost Steinhaeuser,Stephen M Campbell,Sara Willms,Joachim Szecsenyi

doi:10.1186/1471-2296-12-137

Abstract

BackgroundPrimary care teams' job satisfaction is an important issue in quality of care. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the job satisfaction of general practitioners (GPs) and non-physician staff and to explore the elements that may impact on overall job satisfaction for GPs and non-physician staff separately.MethodsThe study was based on data from the European Practice Assessment and used an observational design. Job satisfaction was measured with the 10-items Warr-Cook-Wall questionnaire with 7-point-Likert scales. Job satisfaction of GPs and non-physician staff was compared and impact on overall job satisfaction was analysed with stepwise linear regression analyses for both samples separately.ResultsThe study population consisted of 2878 non-physician staff (mean age: 38 years) and 676 GPs (mean age: 50 years). The actual mean working time per week of GPs was 50.0 hours and of practice staff 26.0 hours. Both were satisfied with colleagues and fellow workers (mean = 5.99 and mean = 6.18 respectively) and mostly dissatisfied with their income (mean = 4.40 and mean = 4.79 respectively). For GPs the opportunity to use their abilities (β = 0.638) and for non-physician staff recognition for their work (β = 0.691) showed the highest scores of explained variance (R2 = 0.406 and R2 = 0.477 respectively) regarding overall job satisfaction.ConclusionsNon-physician staff evaluate their job satisfaction higher than GPs except recognition for work. Job satisfaction of members of primary care teams is important because poor satisfaction is associated with suboptimal healthcare delivery, poor clinical outcomes and higher turnover of staff.

Highlights

Primary care teams’ job satisfaction is an important issue in quality of care
Poor satisfaction is associated with suboptimal healthcare delivery and poor clinical outcomes, for instance due to adverse events and reduced patient adherence [1,2]
The purpose of our study was to evaluate the elements that have the main impact on overall job satisfaction separated for general practitioners (GPs) and non-physician staff

Summary

Introduction

Primary care teams’ job satisfaction is an important issue in quality of care. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the job satisfaction of general practitioners (GPs) and non-physician staff and to explore the elements that may impact on overall job satisfaction for GPs and non-physician staff separately. Job dissatisfaction is a major cause of nurses’ turnover and a shortage of nonphysician personnel [3,4] Another negative consequence of high turnover is a loss of continuity of care [5]. For the healthcare workers themselves, lowered job satisfaction is associated with higher levels of stress and burnout [6,7]. It may affect patient satisfaction with care [8]. It is known that working conditions have an important impact on job satisfaction and a high workload is associated with a lower performance at primary care practices [9].

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Conclusion