Career Satisfaction of Military Medical Officers

Having a mentor is associated with higher job satisfaction among U.S. physicians. The objective of this study was to assess satisfaction among military medical officers and to assess if mentorship and job satisfaction are associated with intention to continue military service.

This is a cross-sectional study using voluntary, anonymous data from 2018 Uniformed Services Academy of Family Physicians Annual Meeting registered attendees who completed an online Omnibus Survey. Outcome measures: satisfaction with work hours and workload; voice in organizational decision-making; amount of teaching, research, and other administrative tasks; being and having a mentor; and likelihood of remaining in the military beyond current service obligation. Statistical analysis: descriptive statistics, chi-square, and logistic regression.

There was a 66% response rate (310/568) among registered attendees. Respondents reported being satisfied with work hours-workload (53.3%), voice in organizational decision-making (47.4%), and amount of teaching-research-other administrative tasks (55.7%). About 64.6% of respondents reported being a mentor, and 80.7% reported having a mentor. About 53.4% reported being likely/very likely to continue military service beyond their current service obligation. Adjustment for demographic and occupational factors, with significance defined as P ≤ 0.05, revealed that higher percent time in clinical care was negatively associated with satisfaction with voice in organizational decision-making; being a mentor and working in an academic practice setting were positively associated with satisfaction in amount of time with teaching, research, and administrative tasks; and having a mentor was the only factor associated with being likely/very likely to continue military service beyond current service obligation (odd ratio 3.9, 95% confidence interval 1.2-12.1).

Having a mentor was the only factor associated with intention to remain in the military among 2018 Uniformed Services Academy of Family Physicians Omnibus Survey respondents. These results support enhancing mentorship among military medical officers.