Mentorship and job satisfaction among Navy family physicians

Among civilian academic physicians, having a mentor is associated with greater job satisfaction. Whether this is true for military physicians is unknown. We sought to examine whether having a mentor is associated with positive job satisfaction among Navy family physicians.

A web-based survey was sent to all Navy family physicians in the Specialty leader's database in May 2008. Our main outcome variable was "positive job satisfaction," and our main exposure variable was being in a mentor relationship. Chi-square was used to test for difference in frequencies in categorical variables and logistic regression was used to adjust for covariates.

The response rate was 60.2% (186/309). Among respondents, 73.7% reported positive job satisfaction. Factors associated with positive job satisfaction included having a mentor, being >9 years postresidency, spending <50% of time in patient care, higher rank, male gender, and being active in research. After adjustment for these factors, having a mentor remained significantly associated with positive job satisfaction (odds ratio 2.86, 95% confidence interval 1.22-6.71).

Having a mentor is associated with positive job satisfaction among Navy family physicians, even after adjusting for multiple other factors. An implication is that a mentorship program may be a strategy for improving job satisfaction.