Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more information on Career Management, 4e

Click here for more information on Career Management, 4e

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Career Development
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Gibson, D. D.
Right arrow Articles by Borges, N. J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Aligning Career Expectations With the Practice of Medicine

Physician Satisfaction

Denise D. Gibson

University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, gibsond3{at}ucmail.uc.edu

Nicole J. Borges

Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine

This study examined physicians' level of satisfaction with their job and the match between expectations and actual practice of specialty. Quantitative results suggested that physicians (N = 211) had a moderately high level of overall job satisfaction with no significant differences found between men and women physicians. Among those in primary care, medical specialties, surgical specialties, or supporting specialties, overall job satisfaction was found to be higher for surgical specialists compared to primary care physicians. Qualitative comments from two open-ended questions identified 20 themes regarding how closely the participants' expectations matched with the realities of the practice of medicine. Six themes are described in detail. Approximately 85% of physicians felt their expectations for their specialty matched their actual experience in the field. Helping students to understand how their expectations align with the actual practice of medicine and specific specialties is important to their development as a physician and to job satisfaction, and has implications for career counseling and advising in undergraduate and graduate medical education.

Key Words: career • job satisfaction • medicine • physician • specialty

Journal of Career Development, Vol. 35, No. 4, 331-351 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0894845309335240
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?