The mental health care context and patient characteristics: implications for provider job satisfaction

This research examines job satisfaction among 282 staff providing mental health care to 574 patients with serious mental illness. The mental health staff worked in 18 Department of Veterans Affairs inpatient and outpatient mental health care units at 12 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers located across the contiguous 48 states. The purpose was to identify (1) aspects of the health care context that were associated with provider job satisfaction and (2) administrative and organizational procedures/interventions that might sustain or improve provider job satisfaction. The association of provider job satisfaction with patients' functional status and symptom severity was tested in multilevel statistical models that accounted for provider and unit characteristics. Provider job satisfaction was found to be greater on smaller units and units with higher patient functioning and lower illness severity. Implications of these results are discussed.