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Public psychiatrists may be more satisfied overall with jobs that involve frequent administrative duties such as policy development, quality assurance, and contract negotiation than frequent clinical collaboration or patient services, according to a new study.
Principal investigator Jules Ranz, M.D., told Psychiatric News, "The most likely explanation for this finding are mediating factors-correlates of power including respect, freedom to act, influence others, and possibly higher income."
He noted that program directors, which he distinguished from medical directors of public agencies, can earn an average of $15,000 more annually than staff psychiatrists.
Seventy-two Columbia University Public Psychiatry fellows and alumni practicing in the New York area responded to a 1996 survey. Respondents included 42 public sector program directors, 27 staff psychiatrists, and three private practitioners. The results were published in the September issue of the APA journal Psychiatric Services.
Ranz, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry and director of the Public Psychiatry Fellowship at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, remarked, "We were surprised by this finding because the respondents' perceived clinical collaboration as the most important contributor to their job satisfaction." Clinical collaboration included supervising medical and nonmedical staff, providing informal consultations, participating in team meetings, and conducting formal training.
"Psychiatrists typically have less experience with administrative tasks and tend to view clinical collaboration and patient care as more important and prestigious," explained Ranz.
To determine the role of administrative tasks in overall job satisfaction, the researchers analyzed the 1996 self-reported information further and found a link between frequency of involvement (time spent) in a specific activity and perceived importance.
"The more involved program directors and staff psychiatrists were in administrative duties, the more they believed it contributed to their overall job satisfaction," write the researchers.
Contrary to their expectation, frequent clinical collaboration was not significantly correlated with job satisfaction, and frequent patient care activities such as prescribing and reviewing medication, psychotherapy, and overseeing medical care were negatively correlated to overall job satisfaction, according to the study.
Ranz commented, "Thus the respondents' perceptions about the importance of these two task areas for job satisfaction are not that closely tied to their current levels of involvement."
He noted that staff psychiatrists reported the same level of overall job satisfaction as program directors. However, "the title of program director provides the opportunity to be more involved in administrative tasks."
Many program directors who participated in the survey said they had created their own jobs, such as program director of a day hospital, while negotiating for staff psychiatrist positions, according to Ranz.
He added that he has surveyed a larger national sample of community psychiatrists this year and the preliminary results are similar to those reported in the article.
To access this article on the Web, go to www.appi.org/psjournal and click on the September issue.