Measuring physician job satisfaction in a changing workplace and a challenging environment

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.