Employment status of young otorhinolaryngologists in Finland during a 10-year period

Abstract

We determined the employment status of recently graduated otorhinolaryngologist-head and neck surgeons (ENT doctors) in Finland during the past 10 years. We also investigated the job vacancy rate of the Departments of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (Department of ORL-HNS). An electronic questionnaire was sent to all ENT doctors who had graduated during 2007-2017 and to chief physicians of all Departments of ORL-HNS. Chi-square and Fisher's test were used in the analyses. Altogether 129 ENT doctors had graduated and 125 (96.9%) responded. Thirty (24%) physicians had been employed in a position that did not correspond to their ENT doctor training. All 30 chief physicians responded and a total of 306 physicians were working at their departments (215 ENT doctors, 91 residents). However, there were only 241 available positions (197 for ENT doctors, 44 for residents). It was estimated that 65 ENT doctors would retire within 10 years. At the moment there does not seem to be a significant shortage of ENT doctors in Finland. The current national volume of resident intake in the ENT training programme is twofold in comparison with the estimated retirement rate in the public sector.

Satisfaction of young ENT surgeons with their work. A Finnish national study

“…Of the ENT surgeons with a PhD degree, 89.6% (43/48) and all (5/5) with a docent degree, with subspeciality (6/6) or another speciality (6/6) were satisfied with their work. The high rate of other specialities in the responders of this series may be explained by the lack of available ENT vacancies and expectations of having a permanent position among young colleagues in Finland [8]. The chief physicians seemed to be more satisfied (20/20, 100%) with their work, although the difference did not reach statistical significance (p=0.052) (Table 2).…”

“…A total of 129 ENT surgeons had graduated in Finland between 1 July 2007 and 30 June 2017 from the five universities offering specialist training in Finland, and 125 (96.9%) of them responded. The detailed demographics of the respondents are described in the previous publication [8]. The average (mean) age of the respondents was 40 years (range, 31-60) and 50.4% were men.…”

“…However, every third (5/15) young private ENT practitioner reported intentions to leave their current position. One plausible explanation for why the recently graduated ENT surgeons may be less satisfied with their careers in the private sector is that if hospital posts are occupied, a recently graduated physician may reluctantly end up doing work in the private sector [8]. Nevertheless, work in the private sector may be attractive especially due to higher income and entrepreneurial identity [16].…”

“…All the ENT surgeons who had graduated in Finland between 1 July 2007 and 30 June 2017 were included and provided with an electronic questionnaire. The present work is part of our earlier study investigating employment status of young ENT surgeons, which included a longer version of the non-validated survey [8]. The questions concerning job satisfaction were analysed separately and are reported in the present manuscript (Table 1).…”