Job Satisfaction among Gynecologic Oncologists Practicing in the United States

Objectives. We sought to determine whether there have been any significant changes in professional satisfaction among gynecologic oncologists over the past 30 years. Methods. We mailed surveys to all U.S. gynecologic oncologists belonging to the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists to compile data on demographics, training, motivating factors, overall professional satisfaction, and the effect of managed care. We compared these factors among oncologists who completed training in different years and among different demographic groups. We used calculated confidence intervals to determine statistical significance. Results. We surveyed 767 gynecologic oncologists and received 344 evaluable responses, representing 47% of the total eligible. Results show that neither the factor rated most important in looking for a first job nor the factor rated most important in giving job satisfaction once in a job has changed significantly among gynecologic oncologists over time. In addition, the importance placed on salary has not varied across the fellowship graduate classes, although within each class salary increased in importance from the first job to the current job. Our analysis shows that while male and female gynecologic oncologists are similar in their job satisfaction and practice patterns, men report being sued twice as often as women, and men tend to stay in their first jobs significantly longer than women. We also compare the surveyed academic gynecologic oncologists to the private gynecologic oncologists and show that while overall job satisfaction is similar, their ratings of the factors that provide job satisfaction do differ significantly. Our data show that managed care penetration has increased over time among gynecologic oncology practices and that gynecologic oncologists' job satisfaction ratings tend to decrease with the increase in managed care penetration, although not reaching statistical significance. Conclusions. Our results show that changes in practice styles since the 1960s have not affected overall job satisfaction among gynecologic oncologists. However, several trends in practice styles can be noted, including differences between sexes, academic versus private physicians, and attitudes about managed care. The survey also suggests that there is interest among gynecologic oncologists in continuing to monitor changes in patterns of practice and satisfaction.