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Many of us spend years working towards our professional goals. For podiatrists, we train at least seven years after graduation from college, some training even longer. Given the significant contribution of time to reach professional success, it is reasonable to ask the simple question: Are you engaged in your job? Do you find it satisfying? Do you feel that you are fulfilling the goals that you have for yourself, that you trained for, in this job? I am concerned that not all of us in a professional and potentially lucrative job are also satisfied and involved as much as we could be. The changes that we have seen in the healthcare industry has had a real effect on job satisfaction, profession fulfillment and engagement.
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Considering this, I found it interesting when I came across a study of Physician Engagement done by Athenahealth, the company that is responsible for Epocrates, the mobile prescription application. This company recently published their 2016 Physician Leadership and Engagement Index, a national survey of physicians using Epocrates.1
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This year, the index was based on responses from 2,011 practicing physicians collected from data collected in January 2016 using the Epocrates application. The survey asked physicians to respond to the following statements:
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My organization inspires me to go above and beyond what is required.
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I am very likely to be working for my current organization three years from now.
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I would recommend my organization to a friend or relative to receive care.
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Respondents were asked to rate their agreement or disagreement with these questions on a 1-6 Likert scale.
“Overall only 20% of physician respondents were engaged in their jobs! ”
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Personally, I found this statistic a bit surprising and, obviously, depressing. One might think, at first glance, that a couple of factors would skew the results towards a more positive one. First, there is a certain weeding out of applicants for coveted physician positions. You’d think this would lead to doctors more engaged just by the fact that they landed a coveted job. Second, doctors and other healthcare providers do an important job helping the lives of others, so there is intrinsic interpersonal satisfaction beyond what they accomplish for the institution that they work for. Again, the psychological and spiritual rewards of this pursuit should provide a greater sense of engagement.
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Looking at some of the other results of this study might help explain the disparity. One of the key results for me was that “physicians who worked in physician–owned, independent medical groups or practices” were engaged at 32% versus 17% of physicians who were not.1 Additionally,” physicians who described themselves as being in a physician–lead organization showed engagement levels that were four times greater than those reported working in non–physician–lead organizations.”
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Now, this study did not look at podiatrists, but I am going to extrapolate to my own profession, since there are many similarities. Let’s boil this down to a very basic level. If you are a physician who owns your own practice, of course you will be more engaged than a physician–employee because you have a lot at stake.
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“These results show the change that is occurring as a result of greater numbers of doctors being employed by larger organizations. There is often a disempowerment that comes with being an employee in a large organization, and physicians are no different than anyone else in this respect.”
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The study recommended the following interventions to improve physician engagement:
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Develop high-quality physician leadership. Leadership by physicians did not have to be at the highest levels. The research showed quality physician leaders at various levels of organizations led to improved engagement of other physicians.
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Build trust between physicians and non-physician leaders by being transparent with performance data and focusing on two-way communication rather than simply from the top down.
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Provide an environment that helps physicians focus on what they do best by providing consistent metrics and creating a social environment of collegiality.
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It would be interesting and informative to see surveys from other healthcare providers such as nursing, physician assistants, medical assistants, physical therapists and others. One has to wonder if these results are unique to physicians or typical of healthcare providers in general, which I would wager is more likely the case.
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