Dk. Freeborn et Rs. Hooker, SATISFACTION OF PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS AND OTHER NONPHYSICIAN PROVIDERSIN A MANAGED CARE SETTING, Public health reports, 110(6), 1995, pp. 714-719
HEALTH MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATIONS have employed physician assistants, n
urse practitioners, and other nonphysician providers for decades, yet
there is little information on how satisfied these providers are with
this form of practice. This paper examines how physician assistants ev
aluate their experience practicing in a large group model health maint
enance organization and compares their attitudes and satisfaction leve
ls with those of other nonphysician providers-nurse practitioners, opt
ometrists, mental health therapists, and chemical dependency counselor
s. The data source is a 1992 survey of 5,000 nonphysician employees of
a health maintenance organization. The survey instrument was a. self-
administrated questionnaire that included both structured and open-end
ed questions. The response rate averaged 88 percent for physician assi
stants and the other nonphysician providers. Physician assistants expr
essed the most satisfaction with the amount of responsibility support
from coworkers, job security, working hours, supervision, and task var
iety. They were less satisfied with workload, control over the pace of
work-and opportunities for advancement. Most physician assistants wer
e also satisfied with pay and fringe benefits. Compared with other non
physician providers, chemical dependency counselors expressed the high
est levels of satisfaction across the various dimensions of work and o
ptometrists the lowest. Nurse practitioners, chemical dependency couns
elors, and mental health professionals also tended to be satisfied wit
h most aspects of practice in this setting. In a number of instances,
they were more satisfied than the physician assistants. The findings a
re consistent with other studies that found health maintenance organiz
ations to be favorable practice settings for physician assistants, The
limits of physician assistant involvement and their role satisfaction
and efficient use in HMOs are more likely to relate to physician atti
tudes and acceptance than to lack of support by coworkers and other at
tributes of the work environment.