Physicians' Job Satisfaction and its Correlates in a Tertiary Medical Care Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Job satisfaction among occupational therapists working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Job satisfaction is a critical factor that must be considered in every profession. It is important for both the employees and the institutions they work for. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to identify the level of job satisfaction of occupational therapists working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. METHODS: This is a cross sectional descriptive study. A validated job satisfaction questionnaire composed of 44 items was distributed and collected from licensed occupational therapists working in 4 hospitals in Saudi Arabia, with at least one year of experience in direct patient care. The sampling was a non-probability purposive sampling. RESULTS: A total of 48 occupational therapists responded to the questionnaire, most of which reported high overall satisfaction level. Occupational therapists showed satisfaction with coworkers, care provided to clients, and autonomy. On the other hand, occupational therapists showed dissatisfaction with salary compared to the work efforts, lack of reimbursement for continuing education, and lack of opportunities for career advancement. CONCLUSION: The overall level of satisfaction of the occupational therapists was high. Efforts must be directed towards maintaining this level of satisfaction. Human resources are encouraged to support areas of satisfaction and find solutions to areas of dissatisfaction.

Job satisfaction among family medicine physicians in Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVE

Physicians are subject to chronic stressors, depression, and burnout due to long working hours, high requirements, and critical decision-making.[12345] All those reasons contribute to the dissatisfaction of physicians. The dissatisfaction of physicians might lead to lower health-care quality.[6] Moreover, patient satisfaction is strongly affected by physician satisfaction.[78] This study aims to measure job satisfaction among family medicine (FM) physicians in Saudi Arabia.

STUDY DESIGN

In this cross-sectional study, we recruited 265 FM physicians working in Saudi Arabia to participate in an online survey between October 2019 and January 2019.

RESULTS

Results showed that more than 50% of the respondents were very satisfied with their career choice (55.5%, n = 147). Non-Saudis who were satisfied or strongly satisfied were higher than those of Saudis (P = 0.035) and 2.45 times more likely to be dissatisfied compared to non-Saudi respondents. Respondents from the southern region were 81% less likely to be dissatisfied than respondents from the central region (OR = 0.19, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Family medicine physicians showed a high level of satisfaction with their career choice regardless of gender, age, sector public or private, marital status. This is promising for family medicine as a medical specialty. The future of health care in Saudi Arabia is driven toward general practice and primary care centers, which aligns with the future vision of Saudi Arabia 2030.

The experiences of foreign doctors in Saudi Arabia: A qualitative study of the challenges and retention motives

Background

The Saudi healthcare system is mainly staffed by foreign doctors who constitute about 73% of the total medical workforce. But, the high rate of turnover among these foreigners had deposited an additional unbearable cost and threatens the stability of the provided healthcare services in the country.

Objectives

This study was conducted to explore the professional and personal challenges that were experienced by foreign medical doctors while working in one of the major governmental tertiary-care hospitals in Riyadh city. The study also seeks to explore the factors that could influence or motivate their retention.

Methods

A qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews was conducted on January 2018. A total of 16 foreign doctors were recruited purposefully using a maximum variation sampling strategy. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using thematic analysis technique.

Results

Three primary themes have been emerged based on the data analysis: (1) Work-related challenges such as; communication and discrimination challenges. (2) Living-related challenges such as; supportive services and restricted movement challenges. (3) Factor motivating retention such as providing good children education, offering flexible traveling regulations, and providing professional development opportunities.

Conclusions

The findings of this study have indicated that there are more important motivators than money for improving the retention of foreign doctors in the country. Several policy actions have been recommended to maintain their essential role. For example; implementing an ethical code to protect them from receiving deceptive hiring information, developing a specialized pocket dictionary to overcome language barriers, embracing "workforce diversity management" techniques to minimize discrimination at institutional level, and finally it is also recommended to include the foreign doctors' family needs and other living related challenges in any future retention strategies.