Abstract

Dissatisfaction amongst US physicians has been steadily increasing over the past few decades as health care reform changes the practice of medicine (Hoff, Young, Xiang, & Raver, 2015; Rosenstein, & Mudge-Riley, 2010). In 2008, physician dissatisfaction rates had increased to 19% (Mazaurenko & Menachemi, 2012). By 2012, 42% of physicians voiced dissatisfaction, with family medicine reporting most likely to be dissatisfied (Sorrell & Jennings, 2014). One factor that could affect physician career dissatisfaction/satisfaction that has not been studied is collaborative relationships with other healthcare providers, such as nurse practitioners. This study used secondary quantitative data from the National Survey of Primary Care Physicians and Nurse Practitioners (2012). Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship of nurse practitioner collaboration and the other independent variables with the dependent variable of physician career satisfaction. In order to address the research goals the independent variables of primary interest were as follows 1) whether PCPs work with NPs in their office; 2) what the quality of the PCP relationship is with the NPs; 3) what is the share of work performed by NPs. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regressions were run to test the significance of the three hypotheses. Analysis yielded many observational results on the PCPs descriptively but did not show any significant results on the proposed hypotheses regarding PCP career satisfaction. However, one of the greatest strengths of this study was the attempt to bridge the gaps of knowledge regarding PCP and NP collaboration and physician career satisfaction. The fact that results were not significant does not negate the need for further studies on this issue, especially since no other studies exist. In conducting future research, obtaining a larger sample of PCPs, including PCPs who work with NPs, would be an important step in correcting some of the limitations of this study. The lack of significant results also raises further questions regarding the difference between career and job satisfaction with the latter referring to the current work environment rather than the cumulative career experience.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2021

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Unruh, Lynn

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Community Innovation and Education

Department

School of Public Administration

Degree Program

Public Affairs; Health Services Management and Research

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0008608;DP0025339

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0025339

Language

English

Release Date

August 2021

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

Location

UCF Downtown

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