Public health: The voice of professionals

Abstract

Objective To monitor, for the first time in Portugal, job satisfaction on public health units (PHUs). Design Observational, transversal and descriptive/correlational study. Setting All 55 PHUs of mainland Portugal. Participants This study targeted all 1196 public health professionals working in PHUs. Main outcome measures Instrument to Assess Satisfaction of Professionals (IASP), filled online, respecting the ethical considerations and a conceptual measurement model. Results Data were obtained from 64% of professionals serving in PHUs, 73% of them female. Response rate of the physicians was 59.1%, with 72.3% of environmental health technicians, 62.0% of nurses and 58.3% of technical assistants. The average age was 47.6(±10.4) years, from 22 to 69 years. We found fair/good satisfaction with men, less educated and professionals with coordination functions more satisfied and low-level satisfaction with salary. Sociodemographic and labour characteristics play a relevant role on job satisfaction. Being female, a physician and an environmental health technician or working in a public setting increases the probability of low satisfaction. Conclusions Public health professionals are satisfied with their job, revealing high pride in their professions and strongly recommending their units to family and friends. Some variables, for example gender, leadership, marital status and education, do influence satisfaction. However, we found dissatisfaction among physicians when practice is compared with what is thought in the internship. It is possible to change the reality in which public health professionals work and to contribute to a reorganization of resources, new internal dynamics and establishment of improvement plans, aimed at a full accomplishment and job satisfaction.

Burnout and health status differences among primary healthcare professionals in Portugal

“…On the other hand, as the share of male leaders (about 23.8% of the sample) is larger than the share of males in workplace (about 19% of the sample) there is some male style of leadership which favours the smaller share of males in the workplace. This may be observed in the assessment professionals do about the human resources policy and the coordination of the health in the sample unit [46,63]. On average, males tend to be more satisfied with these specific aspects of the workplace than females.…”

“…The proportion of men and women in primary health care is unequal and the majority of professionals are women, about 90% of nurses and 65% of GPs. However, it can be noticed from other statistics [62][63][64] that the percentage of males in leader positions is higher that the percentage of males in the working place.…”

“…On the other hand, UCSP have well established vertical hierarchies and very low level of autonomy. Other primary health care units include USP (public health unit), UCC (continued care unit), and URAP (shared assistance resources unit) [44,45].…”

“…Well-being is measured by self-reported variables, which may yield to a self-reported bias [63]. However, due to the very large sample used, there is a trade-off between positive and negative biases, which may result in a strong mitigation of this bias.…”