Satisfação dos médicos no Sistema Único de Saúde em Belo Horizonte, Brasil

Abstract

Introduction: Job satisfaction represents the judgement an individual does of his real work while comparing it to an ideal occupation. Different work characteristics and aspects related to other dimensions of life are involved. Evidence indicates an association between job satisfaction and the illness in the medical category. Also, negative effects of doctors dissatisfaction on the quality of health services have been registered. Purpose: To identify whether occupational factors, social circumstances and health are associated with the job satisfaction of doctors in the public health system of Belo Horizonte. Methods: A crosssectional study based on random and proportional sampling (n = 266) was conducted in themunicipal public health system. The participants answered a questionnaire about job satisfaction, sociodemographic characteristics and lifestyle, working conditions and employment, aspects of non-work satisfaction and health status. The associations between variables were investigated using Poisson Regression. An accuracy of 5% (p <0.05) and a confidence interval of 95% were considered in multivariate analysis. Results: 232 professionals responded to the survey (response rate 87.2%); 150 physicians (64.94%) declared themselves satisfied with the work, with no significant difference between male and female doctors (66.4% vs 64.2% p = 0.74). Most practitioners reported being satisfied with itself (74.6%), with their personal relationships (76.3%) and their ability to work (66.9%). However, dissatisfied professionals predominated at the emergency care units (54.5% vs 45.5%), although this result was not statistically significant. One in four (23.3%) of providersstated that their daily work caused them suffering. Eighteen professionals (7.7%) would not seek re-election to their current jobs. In multivariate analysis, the frequency of physicians satisfied with the work was significantly higher among those who reported a high level of social support at work (p < 0.01) and significantly lower in the group of professionals working under high strain (p = 0.01) or who had a screening positive for TMC (p < 0.01). Conclusions: The results suggest that policies to promote social support and mental health in the workplace, as well as developing strategies to increase the control of doctors over their activities, can have positive effect on levels of job satisfaction of these professionals.