The Analysis of Job Satisfaction of Health Practitioners in Saudi Arabia: Determinants and Strategic Recommendations for Health Workforce Planning

Cureus. 2023 Dec 21;15(12):e50891. doi: 10.7759/cureus.50891. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Job satisfaction plays an important foundation in the health system to deliver high-quality care services to patients. Job satisfaction describes the inside feeling of workers about their jobs whether they like it or not. Job satisfaction of health practitioners is considered an essential factor that affects their efficiency, well-being, and mental health.

Aim: This research study is part of an integrated research aiming to understand the determinants of a revised Workforce Planning Strategy in Saudi Arabia, in close relevance to the demand and supply side in Saudi Arabia.

Results: This study showed that males were significantly more satisfied than females in relation to specialty, organization, and overall global score. There is also evidence for a significant association between age groups and job satisfaction. Older health practitioners had a higher level of satisfaction than younger ones. Regarding nationality, we found that Saudi health practitioners were less satisfied in all aspects, while non-Saudi (Arab) healthcare practitioners were the most satisfied in all aspects except city happiness.

Conclusion: Our study found statistically significant differences that medicine and surgery practitioners are the most satisfied professionals and the least satisfied are dentist practitioners. Health practitioners with more than five years of experience were significantly the most satisfied.

Keywords: digital transformation; health practitioners; job satisfaction; policy making; saudi arabia; workforce planning.