Mapping GPs’ motivation — it’s not all about the money: a nationwide cross-sectional survey study from Denmark

BACKGROUND: Understanding physicians’ motivation may be essential for policymakers if they are to design policies that cater to physicians’ wellbeing, job retention, and quality of care. However, physicians’ motivation remains an understudied area. AIM: To map GPs’ work motivation. DESIGN AND SETTING: A cross-sectional analysis using registry and survey data from Denmark. METHOD: Survey data were used to measure four types of motivation: extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, user orientation, and public service motivation. These were combined with register data on the characteristics of the GP, practice, and area. Using latent profile analysis, the heterogeneity in GPs’ motivation was explored; the associations between GPs’ motivation and the GP, practice, and area characteristics were estimated using linear regression analyses. RESULTS: There was substantial heterogeneity in GPs’ motivations. Five classes of GPs were identified with different work motivations: class 1 ‘it is less about the money’ — probability of class membership 53.2%; class 2 ‘it is about everything’ — 26.5%; class 3 ‘it is about helping others’ — 8.6%; class 4 ‘it is about the work’ — 8.2%; and class 5 ‘it is about the money and the patient’ — 3.5%. Linear regression analyses showed that motivation was associated with GP, practice, and area characteristics to a limited extent only. CONCLUSION: GPs differ in their work motivations. The finding that, for many GPs, ‘it is not all about the money’ indicated that their different motivations should be considered when designing new policies and organisational structures to retain the workforce and ensure a high quality of care.