Job satisfaction and turnover intention among Iraqi doctors - a descriptive cross-sectional multicentre study

Abstract

BackgroundDuring the last two decades, the Iraqi human resources for health was exposed to an unprecedented turnover of trained and experienced medical professionals. This study aimed to explore prominent factors affecting turnover intentions among Iraqi doctors.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional multicentre study was carried out among 576 doctors across 20 hospitals in Iraq using multistage sampling technique. Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire, which included socio-demographic information, work characteristics, the 10-item Warr-Cook-Wall job satisfaction scale, and one question on turnover intention. Descriptive and bivariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify significant factors affecting turnover intentions.ResultsMore than one half of Iraqi doctors (55.2%) were actively seeking alternative employment. Factors associated with turnover intentions among doctors were low job satisfaction score (odds ratio (OR) = 0.97; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.95, 0.99), aged 40 years old or less (OR = 2.9; 95% CI: 1.74, 4.75), being male (OR = 4.2; 95% CI: 2.54, 7.03), being single (OR = 5.0; 95% CI: 2.61, 9.75), being threatened (OR = 3.5; 95% CI: 1.80, 6.69), internally displaced (OR = 3.1; 95% CI: 1.43, 6.57), having a perception of unsafe medical practice (OR = 4.1; 95% CI: 1.86, 9.21), working more than 40 h per week, (OR = 2.3; 95% CI: 1.27, 4.03), disagreement with the way manager handles staff (OR = 2.2; 95% CI: 1.19, 4.03), being non-specialist, (OR = 3.9, 95% CI: 2.08, 7.13), and being employed in the government sector only (OR = 2.0; 95% CI: 1.09, 3.82).ConclusionThe high-turnover intention among Iraqi doctors is significantly associated with working and security conditions. An urgent and effective strategy is required to prevent doctors’ exodus.

The influence of job satisfaction, resilience and work engagement on turnover intention among village doctors in China: a cross-sectional study

“…The model also demonstrated that work engagement played a mediating role between job satisfaction and turnover intention, and between resilience and turnover intention, which is consistent with other studies. Mi Yu found that, under the direct influence of resilience, work engagement played a mediating role between job environment satisfaction and turnover intention among new nurses [21]. Work engagement is an important evaluation indicator for individual work potential and work efficiency optimization.…”

“…Internal individual factors include gender, age, marital status and work ability [4,19,20]. The most widely studied jobrelated factors including working hours, salary levels, social security, job stress and burnout, emotional commitment, job autonomy, fairness of remuneration [21,22] were always incorporated into studies to explore the comprehensive impact on turnover intention. However, these researches have not involve the impact of resilience.…”

“…However, these researches have not involve the impact of resilience. At the same time, the existing studies have mostly used the ttest, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and chi-square test, as well as multivariate statistical analysis to analyse the influencing factors of turnover intention [3,4,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) can not only accurately and quantitatively measure the correlation between observed variables, but also track and deeply dig the correlation between latent variables, and even the causal relationship between measured variables.…”

“…Job satisfaction, defined as a personal positive subjective evaluation or attitude towards all aspects of a work environment, is affected by many factors such as the work itself, work challenge, salary system, interpersonal relationships, working conditions, work motivation, organizational environment and so on, and has been typically considered to be the most representative antecedent variable that directly predicts turnover intention of health care providers [21,23,24]. Many empirical studies on medical staff have found that job satisfaction is negatively related to turnover intention, and influences it through direct and indirect paths [8,24,25].…”

The Influence of Job Satisfaction, Resilience and Work Engagement on Turnover Intention among Village Doctors in China：a cross-sectional study

“…Internal individual factors include gender, age, marital status and work ability [4,19,20]. The most widely studied job-related factors including working hours, salary levels, social security, job stress and burnout, emotional commitment, job autonomy, fairness of remuneration [21,22] were always incorporated into studies to explore the comprehensive impact on turnover intention. However, the influence of resilience on the turnover intention of village doctors has not been included in such studies.…”