Which doctors report the highest job satisfaction? Those who treat the elderly (geriatric specialists) and those who treat young children (pediatricians).
This comes from a University of California Davis study of more than 6,500 doctors. One purpose of the study is to guide medical students toward specialties that best suit them.
And then there's the expectation that happier doctors will provide better patient care.
The study, published online in BMC Health Services Research, didn't offer any guesses as to why doctors are happier treating the old and the young, but it did reveal that (no surprise) doctors who work more in managed care settings and who work more than 50 hours per week tend to be unhappy, while doctors who make more than $400,000 per year seem to like their jobs more.
I agree to that! Maybe it’s because children and seniors are more pliable to doctors’ orders while those in between just refuse to be told what to do!