Work environment, job satisfaction and burnout among Spanish dentists: a cross-sectional study

The main aim of the present study was to examine the relationships among work environment, job satisfaction and burnout in dentists and to analyse the way in which certain sociodemographic variables, such as gender, professional experience and weekly working hours, predict the perception of the work environment.

A battery of online questionnaires was sent to 3876 dentists officially registered in the triple-province region of Valencia; the battery included the Survey of Organizational Attributes for Dental Care, the Warr-Cook-Wall Overall Job Satisfaction Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory and a series of sociodemographic questions formulated for the specific purpose of this study. To assess the relations with the independent variables, we calculated the Pearson correlation coefficient, the Z-scores were calculated to make effect sizes comparable, and the associations between the scales and the sociodemographic variables were investigated by adjusted multiple regression analysis.

A total of 336 participants (9.4%) correctly completed the survey in this study. The mean (M) age was 37.6 years old (standard deviation (SD) = 9.6, median (M_e) = 34). Participants reported high scores on the work environment and job satisfaction scales, with only limited experiences of burnout (3.8%). Work environment and burnout were significantly and positively predicted by years of professional experience (β = .078; p = .000 and β = .107; p = .004, respectively), and job satisfaction was significantly and positively predicted by weekly hours of work (β = .022; p = .001), without significant differences according to gender.

Dentists who work over 20 hours a week and have more years of professional experience report having better perceptions of well-being at work, with no significant difference according to gender. It is important to highlight the aspects that improve well-being in dentistry to reduce burnout, which would lead to greater work engagement and better attention to patients.