Predictors of professional and personal satisfaction with a career in psychiatry.

Background: Many factors, including personal experience and personality traits, contribute to the emotional difficulties that psychiatrists experience in their professional work. The nature of the work itself also plays a significant role.

Objective: To determine those personal and professional characteristics that predict satisfaction with the practice of psychiatry.

Method: We mailed a questionnaire that included items pertaining to aspects of personal and professional life to the entire population of psychiatrists in Ontario (N = 1574).

Results: Of the 1574, 52% (n = 802) responded. We conducted a series of regression analyses to determine factors related to career satisfaction or regret. A belief in the intrinsic value of psychiatry, a low perceived degree of emotional burden from patients, financial success, and satisfaction with psychotherapeutic work emerged consistently as significant predictors. A subsequent discriminant function analysis indicated that all 4 of these variables accurately predicted those psychiatrists with extreme satisfaction or dissatisfaction with work.

Conclusions: These results reveal several variables associated with career satisfaction in the practice of psychiatry that might be useful to discuss with residents who are beginning their careers.