SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A new University of California Davis study on physician job satisfaction found differences among medical specialties, with the happiest doctors caring for children and the elderly.
That doctors treating seniors are among the most satisfied contradicts trends in medical schools, where students mostly avoid the specialty because it’s perceived to be unprofitable and unglamorous.
“Satisfaction ought to be a factor to students when they select their specialty,” said Paul Leigh, lead author and a professor in the University of California Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research.
The study, which culled data from a 2004 to 2005 nationwide survey of 6,500 physicians across 42 specialties, was published online in BMC Health Services Research.
Geriatrics, a specialty within internal medicine dealing with the elderly, had the second-most satisfied doctors, behind pediatric emergency medicine.
Yet last year, nationwide, there were only 250 medical school graduates trained in geriatrics, said Dr. Cheryl Phillips, president of the American Geriatrics Society.
“We don’t do a very good job of exposing students to geriatrics,” she said. “And when medical students are exposed to it, they say, ‘Gee I could be a geriatrician and make $160,000 or a dermatologist and make $500,000.’”
Geriatrics requires an additional year of training after an internal medicine residency, and geriatricians receive 20 percent less pay than if they had taken a general internist position, Phillips said. That’s because the specialty requires long visits with patients and relies heavily on reimbursements from Medicare.
Yet geriatricians are happy.
“We work very closely with the rest of the health care team, as opposed to many other specialties where physicians are often isolated,” said Phillips.
This “team sport” idea also is reflected in pediatric emergency medicine, the specialty with the most satisfaction.
Pediatric emergency medicine specialists mostly work within an academic setting, where doctors have plenty of intellectual stimulation and people with whom to share ideas, said Dr. Nathan Kuppermann, chairman of emergency medicine at University of California Davis and a specialist in pediatric emergency medicine.
Additionally, researchers found work-life balance is becoming more important among doctors, Leigh said.
“In the past medical students have been very attracted to income,” Leigh said. “But having a controllable lifestyle is becoming more important.”
Geriatrics is one specialty where doctors have control over their work hours, because elderly patients in nursing homes have flexible hours, Phillips said.
Other findings
There’s no difference in satisfaction among races. Leigh said studies show that in other careers, Hispanics and blacks tend to be more unhappy than whites.
Doctors younger than 44 and older than 65 tend to be more satisfied. Those in between are among the most unhappy.
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