@article {563, title = {Specialty selection and relative job satisfaction of family physicians and medical specialists in Austria.}, journal = {Croat Med J}, volume = {49}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Jun}, pages = {375-83}, abstract = {

AIM: To estimate the relative job satisfaction of Austrian family physicians and other specialists with respect to whether or not they obtained training in the desired specialty.

METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we re-examined the previous data on allocation of medical training posts in Austria. All board-certified physicians practicing in Vienna were surveyed with a 12-item questionnaire. We analyzed the association between respondents{\textquoteright} desired and practiced medical specialty and their answer to the question of whether they thought they would have had greater job satisfaction in a different medical specialty. We also calculated their relative job satisfaction.

RESULTS: Of 8127 licensed physicians, 2736 (34\%) completed the questionnaire in two mailings. Of physicians who completed the questionnaire, 50.3\% (43.2\% of men) did not obtain the training in their desired specialty and 65.1\% stated that they had originally desired a different specialty. There was a significant difference in relative job satisfaction between specialists who got their desired medical specialty (n=1005) and those who did not (n=697) (0.95 vs 0.62 of maximum 1, P<0.001). No significant difference in relative job satisfaction was found between family physicians who had originally wanted to become specialists (n=679) and specialists who had originally wanted to become family physicians (n=533; 0.89 vs 0.81; P=0.01; chi(2) test).

CONCLUSION: A high percentage of family physicians in Austria had originally wanted to become practitioners of a different specialty. Among physicians who did not receive training in their desired medical specialty, family physicians showed a significantly higher relative job satisfaction than specialists. Obtaining the desired medical specialty is a strong predictor of relative job satisfaction among specialists, but not among family physicians.

}, keywords = {Adult, Austria, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Job Satisfaction, Male, Middle Aged, Physicians, Family, Specialization}, issn = {1332-8166}, doi = {10.3325/cmj.2008.3.375}, url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2443622/}, author = {Spiegel, Wolfgang and Pichlh{\"o}fer, Otto and Haoula, Diana and Schneider, Barbara and Maier, Manfred} }