Background: The trend of dissatisfaction among physicians recorded considerable importance in recent years as it affects patient satisfaction and can adversely affect the patient behavior, including adherence to medical treatment, leading to a reduction in the quality of care. At the individual level, poor job satisfaction and high level of job stress inversely affect mental and physical health, quality of life of physician which will be reflected in his patients. Patient–physician communication is a vital area of clinical practice. When done well, such communication effectively enhances patients' clinical perspectives, as has been validated in controlled studies.
Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted during the period from first June 2019 to 30 September 2019 targeting all accessible physicians working in most of the hospitals in Saudi Arabia.
After obtaining permission from the Institutional ethics committee, data were collected from the physicians who agreed to participate using a pre-structured self-administered online questionnaire.
Results: The study included 226 physicians with their ages ranged from 20 to 68 years old with a mean age of
33.1 (9.2 years). About 38% of the physicians worked in the southern region, 27.4% in the eastern region and 15.9% were in central or western regions. Exact of 42% of the physicians were satisfied regarding their income and 35.8% were satisfied regarding time spent with their patients. In total, high satisfaction was recorded among a few percent of the participated physicians.
Conclusion: In conclusion, the study revealed that nearly 1 out of each 10 physicians were satisfied regarding their work environment and patient's compliance. The highest satisfaction was recorded for their income and time spent with their cases.
