PREDICTORS OF WORK SATISFACTION AMONG SHOS DURING ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY-MEDICINE TRAINING

The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of work-related st ress, and other work environment characteristics that might affect str ess, to predict work satisfaction among senior house officers (SHOs) d uring accident and emergency (A&E) training. Questionnaires were retur ned by 365 SHOs, who indicated their year in training, the number of h ours worked per week, the type of training hospital, the number of new A&E attendances per year, the ratios of patients and consultants to S HOs at their training hospitals and their likelihood of specializing i n A&E. They also completed inventories measuring work-related stress, task and role clarity, work group functioning and work satisfaction. S cores on the satisfaction scale served as the dependent variable in a multiple regression equation. Using an alpha level of 0.05, a signific ant relationship was detected between satisfaction and the 10 independ ent variables (P=0.0001). Direct relationships between task and role c larity (P=0.0001) and work group functioning (P=0.0002) were significa nt, as were inverse relationships between stress (P=0.0001) and the nu mber of new attendances (P=0.0321). Management practices, such as orie ntation sessions, that define tasks and roles, enhance work group cohe siveness and mitigate against stress, should result in increased satis faction among SHOs.