Predictors of Professional and Personal Satisfaction with a Career in Psychiatry
| Autor: | Susan E. Dickens, R. Michael Bagby, Deborah R. Schuller, Fiona Schulte, Paul E Garfinkel |
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| Rok vydání: | 2005 |
| Předmět: |
Male
medicine.medical_specialty media_common.quotation_subject education Personal Satisfaction Burnout Job Satisfaction Social support Surveys and Questionnaires medicine Humans Personality Big Five personality traits Psychiatry media_common Career Choice Middle Aged Mental health Psychiatry and Mental health Feeling Anxiety Female Job satisfaction medicine.symptom Psychology Clinical psychology |
| Zdroj: | The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 50:333-341 |
| ISSN: | 1497-0015 0706-7437 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/070674370505000608 |
| Popis: | Background: Many factors, including personal experience and personality traits, contribute to the emotional difficulties that psychiatrists experience in their professional work. The nature of the work itself also plays a significant role. Objective: To determine those personal and professional characteristics that predict satisfaction with the practice of psychiatry. Method: We mailed a questionnaire that included items pertaining to aspects of personal and professional life to the entire population of psychiatrists in Ontario (N = 1574). Results: Of the 1574, 52% (n = 802) responded. We conducted a series of regression analyses to determine factors related to career satisfaction or regret. A belief in the intrinsic value of psychiatry, a low perceived degree of emotional burden from patients, financial success, and satisfaction with psychotherapeutic work emerged consistently as significant predictors. A subsequent discriminant function analysis indicated that all 4 of these variables accurately predicted those psychiatrists with extreme satisfaction or dissatisfaction with work. Conclusions: These results reveal several variables associated with career satisfaction in the practice of psychiatry that might be useful to discuss with residents who are beginning their careers. (Can J Psychiatry 2005;50:333-341) Information on author affiliations appears at the end of the article. Clinical Implications * Several variables accurately predicted psychiatrists who experience extreme satisfaction or dissatisfaction with work. Limitations * The study was limited to psychiatrists in Ontario. * The evaluation was cross-sectional. * We collected self-report data only. Key Words: career satisfaction, professional practice characteristics, emotional vulnerability Psychiatrists are known to be at risk for depression, anxiety, and burnout (1-4). The perceived stress associated with the practice of psychiatry is a factor in dissuading medical students of different cultural backgrounds from choosing psychiatry as a specialty (5). Many factors-including experience and personality traits-contribute to the emotional difficulties that psychiatrists experience (6). The nature of the work itself, however, clearly contributes further. The emotional burden of treating very ill patients, the relative isolation of the work, and an inability to balance personal and professional lives all play an important role. Recent studies from the US have also related career dissatisfaction to changing practice patterns, reimbursement, managed care, and increased competition from nonphysician mental health professionals (7-9). Nevertheless, psychiatrists also experience tremendous satisfaction in caring for others. There is now an expanded therapeutic armamentarium that includes evidence-based psychotherapies and newly developed medications, which affords a greater probability of treatment success. To possess the ability and perseverance necessary to successfully treat patients in serious emotional distress is for many psychiatrists intrinsically rewarding. Recently, using data from a survey of over 600 physicians, Sturm found that only 21.2% of psychiatrists in his sample reported being dissatisfied with their careers (10). Similar rates were found among a cohort of Dutch psychiatrists (11). Dissatisfaction in this cohort was predicted by feeling poorly managed and resourced, feeling devalued, and feeling a lack of intellectual stimulation, as well as by poor communicative responsiveness and social support from colleagues. An earlier report on another cohort of psychiatrists that the first author has been following for more than 20 years (12) found that personal satisfaction and external measures of career success were related to personality traits and to attributes associated with the psychiatrists' personal and professional lives. These findings, however, were based on a small sample of psychiatrists who graduated from their residency programs in the 1970s and were followed longitudinally, limiting the generalizability of the results. … |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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