Original articleProfessional Satisfaction and the Career Plans of US Physicians
Section snippets
Participants and Methods
We conducted a survey of US physicians between August 28, 2014, and October 6, 2014. A description of the survey administration process, participation rates, and demographic characteristics of the overall survey has been reported previously.7, 12, 20 The physician sample for the survey was assembled using the American Medical Association Physician Masterfile, a nearly complete record of all US physicians independent of American Medical Association membership, which includes physicians of all
Results
The personal and professional characteristics of the 6695 physicians in active clinical practice at the time of the survey who were included in this analysis are summarized in Table 1. The median age was 56 years, two-thirds were men, more than half were in private practice, and the average hours worked per week was 52.2. We found minimal differences between early responders and late responders (a standard approach to evaluate for response bias) with respect to age, sex, or specialty.4
A
Discussion
Currently, information on the career plans of US physicians is limited. In this large national study across all specialty disciplines, roughly 1 in 5 physicians indicated that they would likely or definitely reduce their clinical work hours in the next 12 months. Similarly, roughly 1 in 4 physicians indicated that they would likely or definitely leave their current practice position in next 24 months. Although intent to leave is an imperfect predictor of actual behavior, multiple studies have
Conclusion
Nearly 1 in 5 US physicians responding to our survey intend to reduce clinical work hours in the next year and roughly 1 in 50 intend to leave medicine altogether in the next 2 years to pursue a different career. If physicians follow through on these intentions, they have the potential to profoundly worsen the projected shortage of US physicians. Burnout, dissatisfaction with EHR, and problems with work-life integration appear to be major factors influencing physician career plans. Concerted
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T.D.S. is currently affiliated with Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology, WellMD Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
Funding for this study was provided by the Mayo Clinic Department of Medicine Program on Physician Well-being.