A Study to Assess Career Satisfaction among Dental Practitioners in Kanpur City, U.P., India

BACKGROUND: For almost every health worker, job satisfaction is an important determinant for motivation, retention and performance, and all of these are primarily important to improve the functioning mechanism of health systems in countries of low- and middle income categories. AIM: This study was conducted to estimate the level of job satisfaction among registered practicing clinical dentists in Kanpur city, U.P., India MATERIALS & METHOD: A cross sectional study was conducted among 204 practicing registered dentists. A questionnaire was distributed manually to the participating dentists for measuring dimensions of job satisfaction. A 5 point Likert format with a score range from 1(described as strongly dissatisfied) to 4(described as strongly satisfied) was used to describe the items. Analysis of data was analyzed using SPSS software 21.0 and student t test was applied for measuring the difference of means between the subgroups for each dimension. RESULTS: A significant difference (p<0.005) in levels of satisfaction for various dimensions of job satisfaction within gender, educational qualification and work status was found on analysis. The postgraduates were found to be more satisfied as compared to graduates with a difference in job satisfaction level between genders which was related to the personal time dimension. It was also derived from the study that dentists working full time expressed dissatisfaction in terms of family time, thus to issues in their personal relationships. CONCLUSION: Overall, it was found that the dentists have a high level of job satisfaction and the socio demographic factors deeply influence this domain of career.