Job satisfaction of foreign-national physicians working in patient care: a cross-sectional study in Saxony, Germany

BACKGROUND: Physician migration is gaining attention worldwide. Despite increasing numbers of foreign physicians in Germany, their perceptions on working in Germany remain unexplored. Within a large survey on Saxon physicians, the aim of this study was to elucidate whether foreign-national physicians’ job satisfaction differed from German physicians’ job satisfaction. METHODS: The study was designed as a comprehensive cross-sectional survey. All physicians ≤40 years and registered with the State Chamber of Physicians of Saxony (n = 5956) were mailed a paper-pencil questionnaire, of which 2357 were returned (response rate = 40 %). Questionnaires addressed socio-demographics and assessed job satisfaction by asking participants to rate their satisfaction with the overall job situation and 20 different aspects on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = very dissatisfied to 5 = very satisfied). RESULTS: Ten percent of participants were foreign-national physicians. The three main countries of origin were the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland. Foreign-national physicians were more satisfied with aspects related to patient care, such as “possibility to treat patients as you deem optimal” and “relationship with patients”. However, they were less satisfied with aspects related to human relations, such as “work atmosphere”, relationship with co-workers, and “social status”. Foreign-national physicians were also less satisfied with the aspect “work enjoyment”. CONCLUSIONS: Further research on determinants promoting foreign-national physicians’ job satisfaction is needed as their professional well-being may influence quality of patient care. Measures teaching cross-cultural competence and awareness may be beneficial for both foreign-national and German physicians. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12995-016-0129-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.