Evaluation of the level of job satisfaction amongst teaching faculty in a medical college setting in India

The level of job satisfaction of professionals determines their productivity in an organization. This serves as an important step to improve the health, progress, performance and development of the citizens, and henceforth of a nation. The understanding of the factors related to job satisfaction thus becomes all the more important in labor intensive organizations, such as health care establishments, and further in more demanding specialties.

To evaluate the level of job satisfaction amongst the orthopedic residents and faculty, and determine the factors associated with it in a teaching health care setting. 2) To determine the relationship between the level of job satisfaction and socio-demographic characteristics of the surgeons. 3) To suggest action/s (if any) for the improvement of the level of the job satisfaction.

Data was collected using a pretested structured questionnaire from 50 orthopedic surgeons employed in tertiary care health setting, associated with medical college. The response to each question was devised to be answered via Likert scale. The data was analyzed using SPSS statistical package.

The mean score to assess the degree of "Job Satisfaction " amongst the orthopedic surgeons ranged from 2.72 to 5.6 (with a S.D. 0.57). This corresponded to the category of "moderately dissatisfied to very satisfied" for the level of job satisfaction. There was a positive correlation between the total years of experience in the specialty, and the level of job satisfaction with a correlation co-efficient of0.346 andp value of 0.014. The poor working conditions (lightening, ventilation, etc) were found as a factor for least satisfaction, with mean satisfaction score of 2.98 (ranging from 1–6) out of all the analysed variables. The orthopedicians were found to be most satisfiedfor their salaries, with a mean score of 5.66 (ranging from 1–7).

Less than half of the participants were found to be satisfied with their jobs. Most of them were not sure about their level of job satisfaction. The junior surgeons were at a mediocre level of being neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. The level of senior faculty members ranged from moderate to very satisfied for job satisfaction. The poor working conditions were the commonest reason for dissatisfaction amongst surgeons.

The policy makers should take a call for the improvement of the working conditions in the hospitals. This requires low cost investments, but can markedly elevate the level of job satisfaction amongst doctors, especially in those working in laborious surgical specialties.