Validation of a job satisfaction scale in the Australian clinical medical workforce

Job satisfaction has become an increasingly important topic of focus for the medical profession over the last 20 years. This report details the application of factor analysis to validate a widely used 10-item job satisfaction scale that has not previously been validated in a medical practitioner population. The study drew on data from 9,900 participants enrolled in the first wave of a longitudinal survey of Australian doctors. The instrument was found to possess a dominant single factor explaining 75% of the variance and internal reliability was high (r = .86), enabling the determination of a composite job satisfaction score. Australian doctors experienced high levels of job satisfaction overall, but this varied with doctor subpopulation, age, geographic location, and hours worked per week. The validation of this brief scale in a large cohort of Australian doctors provides opportunities for undertaking further exploratory and comparative job satisfaction research in medical practitioner populations.