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. 2025 Aug 4;26(1):241.
doi: 10.1186/s12875-025-02949-0.

Primary care physicians' job satisfaction in eleven Western countries: a cross-sectional study

Enzo Dattoli  1 , Christine Cohidon  2
Affiliations

Primary care physicians' job satisfaction in eleven Western countries: a cross-sectional study

Enzo Dattoli et al. BMC Prim Care. .

Abstract

Purpose: Job dissatisfaction and job-related stress among primary care physicians (PCPs) are recognised as major issues in high-income countries.

Methods: We analysed the Commonwealth Fund's 2019 International Health Policy Survey of PCPs (n = 13,200). Job dissatisfaction was examined with regard to its potential determinants, including job-related stress, satisfaction with income, time spent with patients, workloads and administrative tasks. We also analysed the future possible consequences of dissatisfaction. We examined outcomes by sex, age and practice location.

Results: Proportions of PCPs 'extremely' or 'very satisfied' with their job varied from 33% (France) to 69% (Switzerland). There were strong correlations between PCP job satisfaction and dissatisfaction with salary (OR = 2.64; 95%CI: 2.35-2.96), workload (OR = 2.80; 95%CI: 2.20-3.57) and time spent with patients (OR = 1.91; 95%CI: 1.58-2.31). 47% of physicians did not want to reduce their working hours; 84% did not yet want to retire from work fully (more than 23% after 55 and more than 57% after 65 would like to retire).

Conclusions: Most PCPs were satisfied with their jobs. Although the variables studied could not explain some of the differences observed, this study's results could suggest policy avenues for improving PCPs' job satisfaction (e.g. more inter-professional work; rebalancing different specialists' salaries).

Keywords: Administrative tasks; Income; Job satisfaction; Job stress; Primary care physicians; Retirement; Staff turnover; Workload.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: According to the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health and SwissEthics (in line with the Declaration of Helsinki), the IHP survey does not fall under Switzerland’s Human Research Act. Projects that work with anonymised datasets or anonymised samples, therefore, do not require approval. Due to there being minimal-to-no risks to the respondents participating in this particular survey, formal ethical approval was not deemed necessary or requested. All the GPs who participated in the present study did so voluntarily. All of the participants in the study signed a written informed consent form. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Aggregated PCP job satisfaction across 11 high-income countries
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Analysis of possible near-future implications
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Possible near-future implications according to sex, age group and practice location
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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