Job satisfaction of primary healthcare professionals: a cross-sectional survey in Greece

BACKGROUND: The role of job satisfaction is essential for the operation of public Primary Healthcare Centers in Greece. The dimensions of job satisfaction can be used to gauge employees’ engagement and performance. METHODS: Job Satisfaction Survey was employed among healthcare professionals in 32 Primary Healthcare Centers, between June 2019 and October 2020. The 36 items of the questionnaire are expressed on a six-point Likert scale divided into 9 aspects: salary, promotion, supervision, fringe benefits, contingent rewards, operating procedures, co-workers, nature of work, and communication. Additional questions were added covering sociodemographic characteristics. RESULTS: A total of 1,007 professionals completed the questionnaire (83.92% response rate), of which 51.04% were nurses, 27.61% physicians, and 21.35% other healthcare employees. The average overall job satisfaction score indicates ambivalence (3.63 out of 6). Participants were dissatisfied with salaries (2.38) and promotion (2.84) aspects and ambivalent regarding fringe benefits (3.04), operating procedures (3.23), and contingent rewards (3.30). Moderate satisfaction was reported for the nature of work (4.53), supervision (4.52), co-workers (4.37), and communication (4.22). Nurses by far reported the lower levels of satisfaction in all dimension except communication compared to the other groups. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that decreasing administrative workload and the improvement of working conditions, procedures, payment, and provision of better opportunities for the promotion of PHC professionals might be the most effective ways to subsequently improve their subjective well-being and their job satisfaction which in turn will improve their performance. (www.actabiomedica.it)