Professional satisfaction of physicians and nurses in general practice settings

Summary

Introduction:
Professional satisfaction of health care providers is an important determinant of patient satisfaction and therefore quality of care. It influences the attractivity of particular medicine discipline and the interest of young physicians to enter the specialization training. The urgency of topic rises in consequence with generally decreased interest in working in health caring professions within European society. As an example, the family doctors/ general practitioners are lacking even in high income European countries.

Aim and methods:
Our aim was to describe sources and dimensions of professional satisfaction of physicians and nurses in general practice settings in the Czech Republic and to suggest measurement for comparison and analysis. We reviewed international articles on this topic. We invited general practitioners (GPs) and nurses to participate in a focus group. We conducted a survey among general practitioners and nurses using an adapted international questionnaire on professional satisfaction with dimensions assessment on scale 1–5. The questionnaires were distributed to nurses and GPs at the Annual Conference of GP Society. The results were elaborated by the simple statistics.

Results:
The results of surveys across the world show, that the discipline of general practice can offer a high professional satisfaction. It demands a high responsibility and workload in stress milieu full of uncertainty, doubts and difficult human interactions. The discussion in focus group concluded that success in practice managament, quality improvement, the atmosphere and interpersonal relations at the settings are apart from clinical outcomes the most significant sources of professional satisfaction. 77 out of 100 questionnaires distributed were available for analysis.

The professional satisfaction was high but varied in dimensions; it was lower due to working conditions and reward, but higher due to communication and interpersonal relations. Significant differencies in gender, type of providers (nurses or physicians) or length of practice were not found in any of dimensions. The better condition for work and protecting own health were in small towns and the biggest social and professional support felt physicians and nurses in big cities.

Key words:
professional satisfaction, general practice, general practitioner.