BACKGROUND. Changes in the demographic, specialty, and employment sector co
mposition of medicine have altered physicians' jobs, limiting autonomy and
reducing morale. Because physician job satisfaction has been linked to clin
ical variables, better measurement might help to ameliorate conditions link
ed to medical disaffection, possibly improving health care.
OBJECTIVE. TO document conceptual development, item construction, and use o
f content experts in designing multidimensional measures of physician job s
atisfaction and global satisfaction scales for assessing physicians' job pe
rceptions 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 th
ose facets were developed.
RESULTS. Facets from previously validated instruments included autonomy, re
lationships with colleagues, relationships with patients, relationships wit
h staff, pay, resources, and status. New facets included intrinsic satisfac
tion, free time away from work, administrative support, and community invol
vement. Physician status items were reconfigured into relationships with pe
ers, patients, staff, and community, yielding 10 hypothetical facets. Globa
l scales and items were developed representing satisfaction with job, caree
r, and specialty.
CONCLUSIONS. A comprehensive approach to assessing physician job satisfacti
on yielded 10 facets, some of which had not been previously identified, and
generated a matching pool of items for subsequent use in field tests.