Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jun 10;32(2):10637.
doi: 10.4081/ejtm.2022.10637.

Satisfaction of outpatient oncologists with their work

Liudmila Moskvicheva  1 , Sergey Russkikh  2 , Ekaterina Makarova  3 , Elena A Tarasenko  4 , Mikhail D Vasiliev  5 , Alina B Timurzieva  6
Affiliations

Satisfaction of outpatient oncologists with their work

Liudmila Moskvicheva et al. Eur J Transl Myol. .

Abstract

Job satisfaction is a fundamental ingredient in the life quality of a modern person; for a health care worker, it determines to a large extent the quality and accessibility of health care services they provide. Our aim is identification of key reasons for low job satisfaction among outpatient oncologists at cancer care centres (CCC) and identification of the best ways to address them. 110 oncologists working in outpatient CCC in Moscow, Moscow region and Ivanovo region participated in this research. Respondents' job satisfaction was assessed using V.A. Rozanova's Job Satisfaction Assessment Questionnaire. Virtually a quarter (23.6%) of oncologists were dissatisfied with their work; male respondents and surgical employees reported significantly higher levels of dissatisfaction. Wage levels and equity, working hours, teamwork and coordination in carrying out collective tasks and managerial style were the main areas of dissatisfaction. Measures to improve the work process included enhancing the resource outfit, fair consideration of each employee's achievements when distributing incentives, clear allocation of responsibility for collective project tasks, creating opportunities for paid part-time work and arranging regular meals at the expense of the health care organisation. Raising managers' awareness of the results can contribute to improvements in oncologists' performance, work process satisfaction, productivity and performance, quality of care and access to it, as well as public satisfaction and confidence in the health-care system as a whole.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

We confirm that we have read the journal’s position on ethical issues involved in publication and affirm that this report is consistent with those guidelines.

Currently, the Russian Federation is intensively implementing the national health-care project, whose most important tasks aim to improve access to medical care and the quality of medical services, develop high-technology diagnostic techniques and disease treatment, boost the sector’s human resources and achieve maximum staffing levels in medical institutions at various levels with doctors, nurses and paramedical staff. Increased motivation, satisfaction, and psycho-emotional well-being of health-care workers should definitely be considered as the basis for achieving these goals. This can contribute to the retention of existing staff and the influx of younger staff, increase staff capacity, improve the quality of services provided and the accessibility of health care. Satisfaction is nowadays understood as the psychological state of contentment that occurs when the result obtained coincides with the expected one or exceeds it, as well as when the subject’s aspirations and desires and basic needs are fulfilled., Work satisfaction is a critical component of modern people’s quality of life. Job satisfaction for the healthcare worker largely determines the quality of their professional performance. It also contributes to the demographic distribution of professionals and healthcare affordability. Many studies, both at home and abroad, demonstrate the problem of poor job satisfaction among doctors and nursing staff. According to Rosta J. et al (2019) work satisfaction among Norwegian doctors tends to decrease when compared in 2010 and 2017. However, the phenomenon is more prevalent among therapeutists and specialists in state institutions. Job satisfaction with Chinese doctors also demonstrated a relatively low level, with an average score of 19.61 out of 30. The authors demonstrated the negative impact of life/work conflict and the positive impact of a psychologically positive physician-patient relationship on job satisfaction. According to a sociological study by Domagała A. (2018) involving 1,003 doctors in Poland, only 56.6% of respondents were satisfied with their jobs. The age of the respondents and their length of service had a positive correlation with their overall job satisfaction. Female specialists were 0.27 times less satisfied with their jobs compared to their male colleagues; respondents working in specialised and university hospitals reported higher satisfaction than those working in community hospitals. Miao Y. et al. (2017) also noted gender differences in job satisfaction when assessing this indicator in rural western China. Professional burnout, heavy workload, limited professional development and career progression along with an opaque or unfair pay system are now considered to be the major causes of low satisfaction among doctors worldwide. In our country, job satisfaction is noted by 54.3% of therapeutists, 60–80% of neurologists (depending on the age group), and 62% of oncologists. Over half (59%) of pathologists with 1–15 years’ work experience have been dissatisfied with career progression, 47% have been dissatisfied with salary and fringe benefits and 29% have been dissatisfied with management relations. Major factors reducing doctors’ job satisfaction are as follows: resource shortage of units, workday duration over 9 hours, lack of rest and meal breaks, lengthy medical paperwork at outpatient appointments, low wages, lack of patient commitment to treatment and responsibility for maintaining their own wellbeing, negative public attitude towards the medical profession.,,, According to Volnukhin A.V. and Siburina T.А. (2021), inadequate use of the professional capacity of medical and managerial staff is mainly due to the rigid regulation and formalisation of work and the lack of conditions (technical, organisational, and financial) for exercising the knowledge, skills, and abilities available. For heads of functional departments, additional factors are management’s disinterest in proactive employees, as well as legal barriers to innovative development. Apart from the above-mentioned problems, doctors also note heavy workloads and an underestimation by management of the capabilities and desires of employees. Medical oncology is one of the most honourable healthcare professions. It is associated with the highest levels of stress, responsibility, and workload, and therefore overall job satisfaction among oncologists is generally not high. Previously, job satisfaction has been widely studied among US, Chinese, and European oncologists; however, there have been no studies on job satisfaction among Russian outpatient oncologists, which explains the relevance of this study.

In this study, we define job satisfaction as a combination of actual work satisfaction (content and organisational conditions) and such attributes as salary level, psychological climate in the team, opportunities for career growth and professional development, effectiveness of communication process, managerial style, etc.

[Table: see text]

Our aim is stimation of job satisfaction in clinical oncologists, who works in the CCC for outpatient oncological care by assessing the degree of satisfaction among outpatient oncologists in cancer centres with their work and its individual components, identifiyng major risk factors and ways of increasing job satisfaction amongst professionals.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Breakdown of job satisfaction by gender, age, job profile and length of service
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Breakdown of answers of respondents in both groups to the question “What activities/measures would you consider effective to alleviate the level of stress in the workplace?” Notes: 1: shift from dictatorial to collegial management; 2: ability to optimise the work schedule for each employee; 3: objective accounting of the achievements of each employee when allocating incentives; 4: improvement of resource outfit of the unit; 5: clear responsibility allocation in performing collective project tasks.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Breakdown of the answers provided by the respondents in both groups to the question “Which changes would enhance your enjoyment of work?” Notes: 1: arranging regular meals at the expense of the health care organization; 2: creation of a staff lounge; 3: creating opportunities for paid part-time work; 4: annual “Best Employee” awards by management.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Breakdown of answers provided by respondents in both groups to the question “What do you lack most in your daily work duties?” Notes: 1: the opportunity to contact your direct supervisor; 2: understanding of the nature of the task; 3: adequate working time to perform minimum scope of work; 4: quiet, peaceful environment at work; 5: communication with employees in other units on work-related issues..
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Moskvicheva LI. [The role of various types of stimulation in the work motivation of a doctor]. Upravlenie personalom i intellektual'nymi resursami v Rossii. 2019;8(3):39-43. Russian. doi: 10.12737/article_5d1d d6874.23192347
    1. Kokorin VG, Kukovyakin SA, Sheshunov IV, Kukovyakina ND. [Satisfaction with medical care (literature review)]. Vyatka Medical Bulletin. 2009;2-4:69-77. Russian.
    1. Zhuravlev AL, Barabanshchikov AN, Volovikova MI. [Human psychology in the modern world]. Materialy Vserossiiskoi yubileinoi nauchnoi konferentsii, posvyashchennoi 120-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya S.L. Rubinshteina, Izd-vo «Institut psikhologii RAN». 2009. pp.137-146. Russian.
    1. Mahmood JI, Grotmol KS, Tesli M, Moum T, Andreassen O, Tyssen R. Life satisfaction in Norwegian medical doctors: a 15-year longitudinal study of work-related predictors. BMC Health Serv Res. 2019. Oct 22;19(1):729. doi: 10.1186/s12913-019-4599-7 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lu Y, Hu XM, Huang XL, Zhuang XD, Guo P, Feng LF, Hu W, Chen L, Zou H, Hao YT. The relationship between job satisfaction, work stress, work-family conflict, and turnover intention among physicians in Guangdong, China: a cross-sectional study. BMJ Open. 2017. May 12;7(5):e014894. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014894 - PMC - PubMed