Job Satisfaction Among Military Physicians Under the CHAMPUS Reform Initiative

This Note reports results from an analysis of the satisfaction of active-duty physicians with their military practices. Conducted as part of an evaluation of the CHAMPUS Reform Initiative demonstration project, the study measures satisfaction at baseline among physicians practicing in California and Hawaii and at matched control areas. Among their results, the authors found that (1) scores on the global satisfaction scale correlated highly with intention to remain in the military; (2) surveyed physicians were moderately satisfied overall, but satisfaction with some aspects of practice (e.g., professional abilities of colleagues) was much higher than with others (e.g., quality of clerical staff); (3) increased age, longer length of military service, Army or Air Force affiliation, recruitment by means other than scholarship, and pediatric specialty were significantly (p less than 0.05) and independently related to global satisfaction; and (4) variables indicating practice site were also significantly related to satisfaction, suggesting an effect of the local practice environment. The results also indicate that military physicians' satisfaction is particularly low with respect to only a few aspects of practice (salary, in clear and compelling terms the potential contributions)