THE SCHOOL PHYSICIAN: A STUDY OF SATISFACTION WITH HIS ROLE

Abstract

IN 1965 an in-depth study of school physicians in Los Angeles was undertaken The object of this study was to describe personal and professional characteristics of Los Angeles City School physicians and to relate these characteristics to various aspects of physician performance in the school health program. This report presents findings on a cluster of attitudes which, in association, may describe the school physician's satisfaction with his work. Job satisfaction has to do with the environment which surrounds the doing of the job. The assumption is often given that poor job attitudes would serve to reduce the effectiveness of the physician or in some degree restrict his functions. While on the face of it this seems to be a plausible position, questions may be raised with regard to what a state of satisfaction obscures in a work setting. It is possible that there are situations where satisfaction is a totally inappropriate response. For example, satisfaction with brief routine health examinations may actually represent a measure of a physician's settling for less than effective case finding procedures. An analysis of job satisfaction data provides a basis for such speculation, which, in turn, is believed to have direct implications for policies related to pediatric education, the employment of school physicians, and utilization of school physicians. STUDY SETTING The Los Angeles City Unified School District, the second largest school district in the United States, served a population of 3,324,390 in 1965. The schools contained 364,657 elementary pupils and 254,311 secondary pupils (618,968 total kindergarten through twelfth grade).