Faculty Bibliography

Health cave organizations may incur high costs due to a stressed, dissatisfied physician workforce. This study proposes and tests a model relating job stress to four intentions to withdraw from practice mediated by job satisfaction and perceptions of physical and mental health

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between HMO practice, time pressure, and physician job satisfaction. DESIGN: National random stratified sample of 5,704 primary care and specialty physicians in the United States. Surveys contained 150 items reflecting 10 facets (components) of satisfaction in addition to global satisfaction with current job, one's career and one's specialty. Linear regression-modeled satisfaction (on 1-5 scale) as a function of specialty, practice setting (solo, small group, large group, academic, or HMO), gender, ethnicity, full-time versus part-time status, and time pressure during office visits. 'HMO physicians' (9% of total) were those in group or staff model HMOs with > 50% of patients capitated or in managed care. RESULTS: Of the 2,326 respondents, 735 (32%) were female, 607 (26%) were minority (adjusted response rate 52%). HMO physicians reported significantly higher satisfaction with autonomy and administrative issues when compared with other practice types (moderate to large effect sizes). However, physicians in many other practice settings averaged higher satisfaction than HMO physicians with resources and relationships with staff and community (small to moderate effect sizes). Small and large group practice and academic physicians had higher global job satisfaction scores than HMO physicians (P <.05), and private practice physicians had quarter to half the odds of HMO physicians of intending to leave their current practice within 2 years (P <.05). Time pressure detracted from satisfaction in 7 of 10 satisfaction facets (P <.05) and from job, career, and specialty satisfaction (P <.01). Time allotted for new patients in HMOs (31 min) was less than that allotted in solo (39 min) and academic practices (44 min), while 83% of family physicians in HMOs felt they needed more time than allotted for new patients versus 54% of family physicians in small group practices (P <.05 after Bonferroni's correction). CONCLUSIONS: HMO physicians are generally less satisfied with their jobs and more likely to intend to leave their practices than physicians in many other practice settings. Our data suggest that HMO physicians' satisfaction with staff, community, resources, and the duration of new patient visits should be assessed and optimized. Whether providing more time for patient encounters would improve job satisfaction in HMOs or other practice settings remains to be determined

BACKGROUND: Physician job satisfaction has been linked to various patient care and health system outcomes. A survey instrument that concisely measures physicians' satisfaction with various job facets can help diverse stake-holders to better understand and manage these outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To document the development and validation of a multidimensional physician job satisfaction measure and separate global satisfaction measures. DESIGN: Self-administered questionnaire: Physician Worklife Survey (PWS). SUBJECTS: A pilot study employed a national American Medical Association Masterfile sample of US primary care physicians and random samples from four states. Responses (n = 835; 55% return rate) were randomly assigned to developmental (n = 560) or cross-validation (n = 275) samples. A national sample (n = 2,325; 52% response rate) of physicians was used in a subsequent validation study. RESULTS: A 38-item, 10-facet satisfaction measure resulting from factor and reliability analyses of 70 pilot items was further reduced to 36 items. Reliabilities of the 10 facets ranged from .65 to .77. Three scales measuring global job, career, and specialty satisfaction were also constructed with reliabilities from .84 to .88. Results supported face, content, convergent, and discriminant validity of the measures. CONCLUSIONS: Physician job satisfaction is a complex phenomenon that can be measured using the PWS

BACKGROUND: Changes in the demographic, specialty, and employment sector composition of medicine have altered physicians' jobs, limiting autonomy and reducing morale. Because physician job satisfaction has been linked to clinical variables, better measurement might help to ameliorate conditions linked to medical disaffection, possibly improving health care. OBJECTIVE: To document conceptual development, item construction, and use of content experts in designing multidimensional measures of physician job satisfaction and global satisfaction scales for assessing physicians' job perceptions across settings and specialties. DESIGN: Using previous research, physician focus groups, secondary analysis of survey data, interviews with physician informants, and a multispecialty physician expert panel, distinct job facets and statements representing those facets were developed. RESULTS: Facets from previously validated instruments included autonomy, relationships with colleagues, relationships with patients, relationships with staff, pay, resources, and status. New facets included intrinsic satisfaction, free time away from work, administrative support, and community involvement. Physician status items were reconfigured into relationships with peers, patients, staff, and community, yielding 10 hypothetical facets. Global scales and items were developed representing satisfaction with job, career, and specialty. CONCLUSIONS: A comprehensive approach to assessing physician job satisfaction yielded 10 facets, some of which had not been previously identified, and generated a matching pool of items for subsequent use in field tests

To determine how internists would respond to out-of-hospital emergency medical situations, we surveyed internal medicine residents and attending physicians at urban academic medical centers regarding their willingness to help in five such scenarios. For those scenarios in which they were reluctant to help, they were asked why. Knowledge of Good Samaritan statutes was also assessed. Respondents were most likely to give aid, including mouth-to-mouth resuscitation if necessary, in scenarios involving a man complaining of chest pain in a restaurant (69%) and a call for help on an airplane (54%), and least likely to help a disheveled man lying on the sidewalk (2%). The most common reasons for not helping were a reluctance to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, feeling that it was not one's responsibility to help, and concern about infectious disease. Knowledge of New York's Good Samaritan law was not associated with willingness to help

We studied 63 randomly selected third-year students who split their 10-week medicine clerkship between ambulatory and inpatient components. Compared with their inpatient experience, during the ambulatory rotation, the 63 students felt more like doctors, more responsible for patients, and more able to know and help their patients. Students reported that ambulatory attending staff appeared happier and less stressed, and did not embarrass them as frequently. Compared with their 619 "inpatient" classmates, these 63 "ambulatory" students scored as well on the medicine examination, and were as likely to receive honors (44% vs 41%), and to choose internal medicine residencies (35% vs 34%). In conclusion, students experienced better relationships with their patients and teachers during the ambulatory rotation, which was academically comparable to the inpatient experience.

The purpose of this study was to develop a current and comprehensive model of physician job satisfaction. Information was gathered by (1) analysis of open-ended responses from a large group practice physician survey in 1988, and (2) analysis of focus group data of diverse physician subgroups from 1995. Participants were 302 physicians from large-group practices and 26 participants in six focus groups of HMO, women, minority, and inner-city physicians. Data were used to develop a comprehensive model of physician job satisfaction. The large group practice survey data supported the key importance of day-to-day practice environment and relationships with patients and physician peers. Future concerns focused on the effect of managed care on the physician-patient relationship and the ability of physicians to provide quality care. Focus groups provided contemporary data on physician job satisfaction, reinforcing the centrality of relationships as well as special issues for diverse physician subgroups of practicing physicians. New variables that relate to physician job satisfaction have emerged from economic and organizational changes in medicine and from increasing heterogeneity of physicians with respect to gender, ethnicity, and type of practice. A more comprehensive model of physician job satisfaction may enable individual physicians and health care organizations to better understand and improve physician work life