What keeps Melbourne GPs satisfied in their jobs?
Kate Anne Walker MBBS, DipObsGyn, FRACGP, is Honorary Fellow, Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne, and a general practitioner, Footscray, Victoria. Marie Pirotta MBBS, FRACGP, PhD, is Senior Lecturer, Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne, Victoria. BACKGROUND Workforce shortages make it important to promote job satisfaction and career longevity in general practitioners. We aimed to investigate strategies that maintain and improve Melbourne (Victoria) GP job satisfaction. METHODS A postal survey of a random selection of The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners vocationally recognised GPs (N=860). Open ended answers were coded according to themes and compared between genders. RESULTS Thirty-eight percent of surveyed GPs responded. The mean satisfaction score was 50 out of 70 (SD 9). Women GPs were more satisfied than men with life-work balance (p<0.01). Most frequently nominated themes for satisfaction were job variety, longitudinal pat
