What Makes Happy Doctors? Job Satisfaction of General Practitioners in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - a Representative Cross-sectional Study

Aim: Studies provide evidence for the importance of general practitioners (GPs) job satisfaction for a secure and high quality health care provision. This study focuses on job satisfaction of GPs in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (MV), a rural area threatened by a lack of GPs. We investigate how satisfied GPs are with their job and which factors influence their job satisfaction. Methods: All 1 133 GPs working in MV in December 2011 were asked to complete a 57-item-questionnaire. The response rate reached 50.1 %. Results: The sample is representative for GPs in MV. Levels of job satisfaction are high and correlate with age and sex: females and GPs below 50 years of age are more satisfied. Factors contributing to high job satisfaction include a good doctor-patient relationship, fair pay, and the variety of reasons for doctor-patient consultations in primary care. Although all GPs were dissatisfied with bureaucracy, this factor has little impact on GPs' overall job satisfaction. Conclusion: In light of the imminent lack of GPs, in future it will be important to improve factors that have been demonstrated to increase job satisfaction.