WHAT ARE THE TOP factors that contribute to hospitalist career satisfaction—and dissatisfaction?
In our latest survey, we asked respondents to rank a list of factors that make them satisfied (or not) with their careers. We found that the most important factor in boosting career satisfaction for hospitalists who treat adults was compensation, which two-thirds of respondents ranked as their top factor. Other factors rounding out that top five included work schedules, quality of care, providing reasonable coverage and relationships with co-workers.
In terms of dissatisfaction, 43.5% of respondents chose “time spent on administrative duties,” making it the top dissatisfier. But also listed among the top five were two factors that also made the list as major satisfiers: compensation and work schedule.
Here are the top factors that hospitalists said can help or hurt (or both) their career satisfaction.
Career satisfiers for adult hospitalists
When it comes to career satisfaction for adult hospitalists, the top-rated factor was compensation: A resounding 67% of respondents said pay had the biggest impact. A close second was work schedule, which 62% of adult hospitalists said was key to being satisfied in their career.
It’s worth noting that those two responses dominated our survey options. The other three factors that made the top five were chosen by fewer than half of the hospitalists taking our survey.
Here’s a look at the top five factors adult hospitalists said help satisfaction:
- Compensation: 66.7%
- Work schedule: 62.1%
- Quality of care provided: 47.5%
- Ability to reasonably cover patients: 42.4%
- Relationship among group, staff, referring docs: 40.4%
Career satisfaction for pediatric hospitalists
As far as career satisfaction, compensation didn’t have nearly the same pull among pediatric hospitalists. The most important factor for hospitalists who care for children was work schedule, which more than two-thirds of survey respondents identified as key. Only about one-third said compensation was the biggest factor in being satisfied with their career.
In fact, pediatric hospitalists said that the amount of night call they had to work was just as important as compensation. Both factors were cited as career satisfiers by 35.3% of our respondents.
Here’s a look at the top five satisfiers for career satisfaction among pediatric hospitalists:
- Work schedule: 70.6%
- Relationship with staff/referring docs/admin: 58.8%
- Quality of care: 52.9%
- Ability to reasonably care for patients: 41.2%
- Compensation AND Amount of night call: 35.3%
What makes adult hospitalists dissatisfied?
As for dissatisfiers, no single factor was identified by a resounding percentage of adult hospitalists. Instead, a large number of dissatisfiers was identified by less than half of our respondents.
The factor that got the most attention was time spent on administrative duties. That was ranked the top dissatisfier by 43.5% of adult hospitalists.
Compensation did make the cut as a dissatisfier, but it was flagged by only 39% of adult hospitalists. That percentage paled in comparison to the 67% who cited compensation as a career satisfier.
It was a similar situation with work schedule, identified as a dissatisfier by 27% of adult hospitalists—far below the 62% of respondents who said it was a factor that improved their career satisfaction.
Here’s a look at the top five dissatisfiers for adult hospitalists:
- Time spent on admin duties: 43.5%
- Compensation: 39.4%
- Group governance/admin transparency: 34.6%
- Patient behavior: 33.7%
- Work schedule: 27.2%
Dissatisfiers among pediatric hospitalists
While pediatric hospitalists didn’t list compensation as a major career satisfier, one-half did rank it as a source of dissatisfaction. Work schedule also appeared on the dissatisfier list, with 20% of pediatric hospitalists flagging it. But that percentage was tied with support from other specialists.
Here’s a look at the factors that pediatric hospitalists said are the biggest sources of career dissatisfaction:
- Compensation: 50.0%
- Time spent on admin duties: 45.0%
- Group governance/admin transparency: 25.0%
- Patient behavior: 25.0%
- Work schedule AND support from other specialties: 20.0%
For more data on how physician compensation is affected by bonuses, experience, shift work and location, check out our overview on hospitalist pay.
