Factors determining intention to leave among physicians in tertiary hospitals in China: a national cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE: The reasons that physicians leave the institutions have not been extensively studied. We aimed to evaluate these reasons, which include the desire to work at another hospital or the intention to make a career change, among physicians in tertiary hospitals in China and explore the associations between the individual-level and organizational-level factors related to these two reasons for leaving. METHODS: We conducted a national survey of 136 tertiary hospitals across all 31 provinces in China between December 2017 and January 2018. A total of 20 785 physicians were selected to self-report on the two evaluated reasons related to physicians’ intent to leave. A univariate analysis and multilevel regression model were applied to evaluate the factors associated with intention to leave. RESULT: In all, 10.4% of the participating physicians had thought about working at another hospital, and 20.5% intended to leave to make a career change. At the hospital level, the government subsidy per bed (OR=0.88, 95% CI: 0.86 to 0.98 and OR=0.91, 95% CI: 0.90 to 0.99), personnel funding per capita (OR=0.86, 95% CI: 0.76 to 0.96 and OR=0.80, 95% CI: 0.73 to 0.88) and the number of physicians per bed (OR=0.83, 95% CI: 0.81 to 0.86 and OR=0.89, 95% CI: 0.81 to 0.92) were negatively associated, while the number of hospital-level medical disputes (OR=1.04, 95% CI: 1.03 to 1.05 and OR=1.06, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.11) was positively associated with both reasons for leaving. At the individual level, income (OR=0.74, 95% CI: 0.71 to 0.79 and OR=0.88, 95% CI:0.83 to 0.92) and job satisfaction (OR=0.18, 95% CI: 0.17 to 0.20 and OR=0.16, 95% CI: 0.15 to 0.18) acted as preventive factors against both reasons for leaving, while work hours per week (OR=1.11, 95% CI: 1.06 to 1.17 and OR=1.23, 95% CI: 1.19 to 1.28) and medical dispute (OR=1.49, 95% CI:1.35 to 1.65 and OR=1.77, 95% CI: 1.64 to 1.91) acted as promotive factors. CONCLUSIONS: Although the intention to leave is not prevalent among physicians in tertiary hospitals in China, providing more organisational support and a better occupational environment may promote retention among physicians.