A survey of physicians working in a community health center

Sun Mi Lim; Kyung Hwa Seo; Hye Kyung Kim; Yoon Hyung Park

doi:10.5124/jkma.2012.55.2.174

J Korean Med Assoc > Volume 55(2); 2012 > Article

Lim, Seo, Kim, and Park: A survey of physicians working in a community health center

Healthcare Policy

Journal of the Korean Medical Association

Journal of the Korean Medical Association 2012; 55(2): 174-186.

Published online: February 08, 2012

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2012.55.2.174

A survey of physicians working in a community health center

Sun Mi Lim, PhD¹, Kyung Hwa Seo, MBA¹, Hye Kyung Kim, MD², Yoon Hyung Park, MD^1,³

¹Research Institute of Healthcare Policy, Korean Medical Association, Seoul, Korea.

²Public Health Center of Suwon City, Suwon, Korea.

³Department of Preventive Medicine, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Cheonan, Korea.

Corresponding author: Yoon Hyung Park, parky@sch.ac.kr

Received January 11, 2012 Accepted January 21, 2012

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

In Korea, physicians of the public health sector have significantly contributed to health services such as prevention and treatment of disease. However, advances in the field of public health have not provided sufficient institutional strategies and systems for reinforcement of administrative capabilities and health services. As a result, the satisfaction of physicians working in community health centers has been decreasing and their advances in the field of public health have also decreased. This study was conducted to examine the work status, working conditions, and overall job satisfaction physicians in order to strengthen of the role of physicians who work in community health centers. The subjects of the study included 191 individuals. The data were analyzed by frequency analysis and descriptive analysis using SAS. It was found that among physicians working in a community health center, the overall degree of job satisfaction was satisfactory, at 52.2% of respondents. However, it was found that employment stability (81.3%), salary increases (78.8%), the abolition of new recruitment of managing physicians on the basis of temporary (5-year term) employment (75.4%), and the provision and support for education (71.2%) should be improved to increase the job satisfaction of physicians in the community health center. Regarding this, the physicians responded that the most important conditions for them to work in the community health center were actualization of salary (63.3%) and the change of job status from temporary to full-time employment (17.0%). In conclusion, we must increase the job satisfaction of physicians working in community health centers to improve the quality of the public health care system in Korea and systematically improve the personnel system, salary, administration, and job status to increase job satisfaction.

Community health center; Physicians; Job satisfaction

References

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Figure 1

The perception of the work itself. 1. It's pleasant and rewarding. 2. It gives me an intellectual stimulus and a sense of achievement. 3. It affords a lot of opportunity to display one's own ability. 4. It's an acknowledged and socially respected job. 5. It gives a lot of opportunity to acquire new knowledge or techniques. 6. It makes me frustrated. 7. It's boring and gets me fed up. 8. It requires a lot of time in clerical (administrative) transactions. 9. There is no specific difference whether doing hard on it or doing sloppily. 10. It gives me stress.

Figure 2

The perception of the work environment. 1. There is sufficient space for business activities. 2. There is sufficient time for business activities. 3. Working conditions such as noise, lighting, and indoor temperature are pleasant. 4. Medical appliances or medical equipment are sufficient enough to perform medical services. 5. There is a sufficient workforce to support business activities.

Figure 3

The perception of the overall job. 1. I feel responsible for the job I have taken. 2. I have an aptitude for working in community health center. 3. I always trust and respect my co-workers. 4. I cooperate with co-workers in difficult tasks. 5. I have respect for senior workers. 6. I freely discuss tasks with staff. 7. I can work here as long as I want. 8. I think this job is promising. 9. I am satisfied with my current salary level. 10. Promotion is made on the basis of fair principles. 11. I am satisfied with the system of promotion. 12. We have an enough chances to be promoted to the upper ranks.

Figure 4

Overall job satisfaction.

Figure 5

Major entrance obstacles of physicians to the community health center. 1. Relatively low salary. 2. Lack of advertisement. 3. Lack of expertise in public health sector. 4. Insufficiency and blockage of promotion. 5. Lack of position changes among the community health centers. 6. Lack of administrative skills. 7. Other

Figure 6

Future prospects of physicians working in community health centers.

Figure 7

Satisfaction with educational program.

Figure 8

Preparation time for education.

Figure 9

Capacity reinforcement of physicians working in community health centers. 1. Research and accumulation of justification of validity with physicians getting a director. 2. Enhanced support for physicians in the public health sector in the Korean Medical Association. 3. Enhancement of program introduction for physicians in the public health sector. 4. Research support. 5. New establishment of department or officials for physicians in the public health sector. 6. Database construction for the employees of the public health sector and job information. 7. Support for long-term training abroad (6 months to 1 year). 8. Establishment and administration of cooperative degree course. 9. Establishment and administration of specialty acquisition course.