Abstract:

Objective To understand the job satisfaction and influencing factors of grass-roots public health service practitioners in Anhui Province, and to put forward corresponding suggestions for improving the satisfaction. Methods By stratified random cluster sampling method, we conducted a survey on the public health service practitioners from township health centers in 39 counties in north, middle and south Anhui areas between January and April 2021. The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire was used to investigate the job satisfaction of the employees, and the influencing factors of job satisfaction were analyzed by multiple linear regression. Results A total of 5 430 township public health service practitioners from 723 townships health centers in 39 counties were investigated. There were 2 112 males (38.90%) and 3 318 females (61.10%). The majority of people between 40 and 49 years old (2 240, 41.25%), most of them had college education or above (3 934, 72.45%), clinical majors were the most studied (2 503, 46.10%), more people came from general township health centers (3 091, 56.92%). The overall job satisfaction score was (2.02±0.78), the internal score was (1.94±0.71) and the external score was (2.19±0.89), among which "My remuneration versus the amount of work I do" scored the highest (2.46±1.02), while "Being able to do something that does not go against my conscience" had the lowest score (1.74±0.65). Gender, professional title, scale of the organization and emphasis on training were the main factors affecting the job satisfaction of public health service practitioners working in township institutions (t=-4.61, 2.28, 2.70, -41.78, respectively, all P <0.05). Conclusion The overall satisfaction rate appears relatively higher in the public health providers working in the grass-root public health service organizations in Anhui Province, and the external satisfaction is slightly lower than the internal satisfaction. The satisfaction for this group of professionals can be further improved through efforts to strengthen the talent development, modify the working conditions and optimize compensation packages.

Key words: Township health center, Public health service, Work satisfaction, Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire