Job satisfaction among family medicine physicians in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Objective: Physicians are subject to chronic stressors, depression, and burnout due to long working hours, high requirements, and critical decision-making.[ 1 2 3 4 5 ] All those reasons contribute to the dissatisfaction of physicians. The dissatisfaction of physicians might lead to lower health-care quality.[ 6 ] Moreover, patient satisfaction is strongly affected by physician satisfaction.[ 7 8 ] This study aims to measure job satisfaction among family medicine (FM) physicians in Saudi Arabia. Study Design: In this cross-sectional study, we recruited 265 FM physicians working in Saudi Arabia to participate in an online survey between October 2019 and January 2019. Results: Results showed that more than 50% of the respondents were very satisfied with their career choice (55.5%, n = 147). Non-Saudis who were satisfied or strongly satisfied were higher than those of Saudis ( P = 0.035) and 2.45 times more likely to be dissatisfied compared to non-Saudi respondents. Respondents from the southern region were 81% less likely to be dissatisfied than respondents from the central region (OR = 0.19, P < 0.05). Conclusion: Family medicine physicians showed a high level of satisfaction with their career choice regardless of gender, age, sector public or private, marital status. This is promising for family medicine as a medical specialty. The future of health care in Saudi Arabia is driven toward general practice and primary care centers, which aligns with the future vision of Saudi Arabia 2030.

Comparing Job Satisfaction Among Healthcare Workers at Emergency Departments and Primary Healthcare Units During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This is because differences in job specialities present different work demands that create different variations in job stressors [ 39 ]. The results here revealed a high percentage of people (69.2%) who liked their jobs and did have a sense of pride in what they did, thus showing satisfaction in their career choice, similar to that reported by Abdulrahman et al [ 27 ]. There is a possibility that due to the complexity of the COVID-19 epidemic and the difficult challenges of controlling and preventing its spread, frontline medical staff were assigned identical responsibilities that were not reflective of their degrees of specialization, as previously suggested [ 7 ].…”

“…The satisfaction of HCWs at their jobs has received and continues to gain the attention of researchers in Saudi Arabia [26][27][28]. Reports in the Kingdom do not vary much with physicians and nurses who were indicated to show more satisfaction with their jobs than the paramedics, though differences were not significant [26].…”

The Factors Affecting the Level of Job Satisfaction of Family Physicians and their Relationship with Professional Self-Esteem

“…In a study on job satisfaction among family physicians in Saudi Arabia, it was reported that physicians were highly satisfied with their career choices, regardless of gender, age, public or private, and marital status. 16 In another study on effort-reward imbalance and job satisfaction of 1,105 family medicine practitioners in China, it was revealed that age, education, job rank, type of institution, working year and monthly income, were factors affecting job satisfaction and that the general job satisfaction level was relatively low. 17 In this study, no significant relationship was found between age, gender and marital status as demographic factors of job satisfaction of family physicians and general job satisfaction and its sub-dimensions.…”

An Assessment of the Well-Being of Physicians Working in a Family Physician’s Team During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Lithuania

“…The satisfaction of physicians can be analyzed through an array of aspects: life satisfaction, work satisfaction, and satisfaction in decision-making and management of the pandemic [10]. Work satisfaction among physicians depends on sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, and speciality), work hours, income, lifestyle, professional accomplishments, decision-making autonomy, and good patient-physician contact [11]. Poorly-defined tasks and additional administrative workload negatively affect the work and life satisfaction of family physicians, and influence burnout on a personal and professional, patient-related level [12].…”