An Assessment of the Level of Job Satisfaction Among Resident Doctors Working at a Multi Speciality Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital of North India

Brain drain is one of the causes of shortage of doctors in India and knowing which facets of resident doctor`s job provide satisfaction and which dissatisfy them is important in forming strategies for retaining them in country. Based on this assumption, the focus of this study was to assess the level of job satisfaction among resident doctors working at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Srinagar (J&K), India.

A cross sectional study was conducted between 1^st February 2013 to 31^st March 2013 at Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Srinagar using a pre-structured questionnaire to determine the level of job satisfaction among resident doctors. Descriptive statistics were utilized to analyze the data.

The general level of job satisfaction in resident doctors was 38.8%. Most (61%) of them had low level of job satisfaction, some (26.4%) had average level of job satisfaction, and only few (12.6%) had high level of job satisfaction. Most of the resident doctors were satisfied with their interpersonal relationships with colleagues (97.8%), patients (67.9%), seniors (65.8%), and subordinates (56.7%) but least were satisfied with their salary (6.5%), workload (9.1%) and working hours (9.5%).

The general level of job satisfaction among the resident doctors working in a multispecialty tertiary care teaching hospital was low (38.8%) mainly due to low salaries, increased work load and increased working hours.