IS BEING A DOCTOR STILL FUN

Over the past two decades, a decline in physician job and career satis faction has been reported. This study was developed to determine the c urrent state of physician satisfaction and to define factors correlate d with overall satisfaction. We mailed a survey to 406 physicians in S olano County, California. Responses were anonymous, and data were anal yzed by several methods. Of the 406 physicians, 251 (62%) responded. M ost respondents were satisfied with their jobs (80%). The vast majorit y felt good about their ability to help their patients (92%), enjoyed the relationships they had with patients (93%) and colleagues (86%), a nd found their work intellectually satisfying (89%). Nearly two thirds (63%) of respondents thought their job was ''fun.'' This ability to d erive great pleasure from work showed the strongest correlation with o verall satisfaction. Overall satisfaction did not differ between prima ry care and non-primary care physicians or between physicians in a lar ge health maintenance organization and those in mostly solo and small- group fee-for-service practices. Despite substantial challenges to phy sician morale and autonomy, most responding physicians in our study co ntinued to enjoy overall job satisfaction, and a solid majority though t that their work was fun.