Specialty Selection and Relative Job Satisfaction of Family Physicians and Medical Specialists in Austria

Aim To estimate the relative job satisfaction of Austrian family physi-cians and other specialists with respect to whether or not they obtained training in the desired specialty. Methods In this cross-sectional study, we re-examined the previous data on allocation of medical training posts in Austria. All board-cer-tified physicians practicing in Vienna were surveyed with a 12-item questionnaire. We analyzed the association between respondents ’ de-sired and practiced medical specialty and their answer to the question of whether they thought they would have had greater job satisfaction in a different medical specialty. We also calculated their relative job satisfaction. Results Of 8127 licensed physicians, 2736 (34%) completed the ques-tionnaire in two mailings. Of physicians who completed the ques-tionnaire, 50.3 % (43.2 % of men) did not obtain the training in their desired specialty and 65.1 % stated that they had originally desired