Professional satisfaction in general practice: Does it vary by size of community?

Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether the level of professional satisfaction of Australian general practitioners varies according to community size and location. Design, setting and participants: Cross-sectional, population-level national survey using results for a cohort of 3906 GPs (36% were "rural" participants) from the first wave of a longitudinal study of the Australian medical workforce, conducted between June and November 2008. Geographical differences in levels of professional satisfaction were examined using five community size categories: metropolitan, ≥ 1 million residents; regional centre, 50 000-999 999; medium-large rural, 10 000-49 999; small rural, 2500-9999; and very small rura..