Percepción de cambios en la práctica médica y estrategias de afrontamiento / A survey about physicians’ professional satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Background: A change in the social structure of medicine and its impact on clients has occurred in the last decades. Aim: To perform a survey about subjective wellbeing among physicians. Material and Methods: A physician’ professional satisfaction survey consisting in 90 questions, was applied to 580 physicians (70 percent males), working in Metropolitan Santiago. Results: Physicians perceive changes in all the examined professional domains and approximately 50 percent of the changes are evaluated as negative. Change perception is a general phenomena among physicians, since there were no differences in relation to gender and only in few aspects with respect to age and medical specialty. There was a predominant positive attitude, based on the profession, to face changes. Conclusions: The positive evaluation of changes and the frequent use of managing strategies are associated with a higher satisfaction among physicians.