Association of organizational and patient behaviors with physician well-being: A national survey in China

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the association of organizational and patient behaviors (reflecting the internal and external environment of hospital, respectively) with physician well-being. A national cross-sectional survey was conducted in 77 hospitals across seven provinces in China between July 2014 and April 2015. Physician well-being was assessed with job satisfaction, career regret and happiness. Organizational behaviors were assessed with organizational fairness, leadership attention and team interaction; patient behaviors were assessed with patient trust and unreasonable requests from patients. Of a study sample of 3,159 physicians, 1,788 were men (56.6%) and 1,371 were women (43.4%). Overall, positive organizational and patient behaviors reported by physicians were relatively low. Negative organizational behaviors and patient behaviors including lower organizational fairness, lower leadership attention, lower team interaction and lower patient trust were associated with lower job satisfaction and lower life satisfaction, and higher career regret. The association between organizational behaviors and physician well-being exhibited some gender differences, while no clear gender difference was found for the relationship between patient behaviors and physician well-being. Given the importance of physician well-being for the healthcare system, interventions for improving internal and external hospital environments (e.g., organizational fairness, leadership attention, team interaction and patient trust) may benefit physician well-being.