Content area
Full Text
There is an ongoing debate regarding whether doctors still retain their dominance in the healthcare world, and whether they still have their autonomy to set work conditions and make clinical decisions. The growing international literature signifies great variation in the impact of stress, job satisfaction, psychological symptoms, and morale on health professionals around the world.
New Zealand (NZ) and the United Kingdom (UK) have similar health services. Indeed, for many reasons (economic, experiential, working conditions, relationships), many NZ doctors transfer to the UK and visa versa. However, while both countries have faced the changes and challenges associated with significant health reforms, little published information remains the relative occupational satisfaction between NZ and UK physicians.
In 2001, a study by Dowell1 explored satisfaction and psychological stressors among NZ health professionals and found that doctors were generally satisfied with their jobs, although there were ever-present levels of psychological morbidity. In contrast, work by Davidson2 and Ramirez3 shows a downward trend of job satisfaction and increasing stress in UK doctors.
Dissatisfaction is a big concern among physicians, even if medical work pays well and medical schools still have an abundance of medical students--important factors in maintaining a high quality of care.
Current dissatisfaction may forecast future declines in numbers of practitioners within a speciality. Also, if prolonged, it may lead to health problems for the physicians themselves.4 Finally, dissatisfied doctors may be more inclined to 'unionise' and strike, which occurred in the town of Timaru (in South Canterbury, NZ) in 2003.5
Because of the ongoing transfer of UK and NZ doctors, we felt it was important to analyse directly levels of occupational satisfaction among physicians from both countries, using the same tools and discover whether any lessons can be learnt. There are implications for physician training, retention, working conditions, and (ultimately) patient care.6
Methods
Contact details for all doctors surveyed were obtained from the human resources departments of each Hospital Trust. In total, 757 physicians and 631 surgeons responded (92% of the total).
In the UK, the East Sussex and East Kent Hospitals Trusts were surveyed--a total of 795 doctors (57% of the total study population). In New Zealand, doctors from the Canterbury Health district and South Canterbury district were surveyed--a total of 593 doctors (43% of the...