Major Finding: Of 222 pediatric hospitalists, 92% reported career satisfaction, and 44% reported adequate mentorship.
Data Source: Anonymous electronic survey of hospitalist members of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Hospital Medicine Listserv.
Disclosures: The study was sponsored by the AAP SOHM subcommittee on complex care; survey respondents were eligible for a lottery drawing for a $250 incentive. Dr. Pane reported no conflicts of interest.
MINNEAPOLIS — Job satisfaction runs high among pediatric hospitalists, with a lack of mentorship being one chink in their armamentarium, a study has shown.
Among 222 pediatric hospitalists responding to an anonymous, electronic cross-sectional survey, 92% either agreed or strongly agreed with the following statement: tOverall, I am pleased with my work.” The item received a score of 4.25 on a 5-point Likert scale, with 5 being strongly agree and 1 being strongly disagree.
By contrast, just 44% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that “I have adequate mentorship in my career.”
This was the significantly lowest-rated item in the survey with a score of 3.05, coming in below even compensation at 3.43, said lead author Dr. Laurie Pane, who reported the findings during the plenary session at the meeting.
“Lack of mentorship is a significant problem that spans the demographic spectrum,” she said. “Establishing a formal mentorship program may be an effective way for hospitalist groups to improve satisfaction.”
A 2006 white paper on career satisfaction by the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) identified four pillars of career satisfaction, with mentorship cropping up as a subset of the community/environment pillar. The other three pillars were reward/recognition, workload/schedule, and autonomy/control.
Dr. Pane noted that the specialty has changed dramatically in the past decade, with membership in the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Hospital Medicine (AAP SOHM) increasing 380% from 225 members in 2004 to 850 members in 2010.
Dr. Pane, a pediatric hospitalist at Children's National Medical Center in Washington and her colleagues e-mailed the survey to 1,100 AAP SOHM Listserv members between November 2009 and January 2010 in combination with a complex care survey. The response rate was 20%. Respondents were eligible for a lottery drawing for a $250 incentive.
The majority (70%) of respondents were women, 35% had graduated residency within the last 5 years, 63% had been a hospitalist for 5 years or less, 13% had completed a fellowship (primarily in infectious disease or hospital medicine), and 76% held academic appointments.
Practice settings were evenly divided, with 34% practicing at a freestanding academic children's hospital, 34% practicing at a children's hospital or ward within a community hospital, 29% practicing at an academic children's hospital or ward within an adult hospital, and 3% choosing “other.”
The desire for mentorship did not statistically differ by years since graduation, years as a hospitalist, sex, or practice setting, although fellowship graduates did report significantly better mentorship (P = .004), Dr. Pane said at the meeting sponsored by the SHM, the AAP, and the Academic Pediatric Association.
Having adequate mentorship, however, was significantly correlated with overall career satisfaction, having sufficient opportunity to advance in their career, feeling valued by their administration, wishing to remain at their current hospital, and finding their compensation fair (all at a P value of .001 or less).
Lack of mentorship was significantly negatively correlated with planning to change specialty, planning to leave clinical medicine, and finding the volume of work overwhelming.
'Lack of mentorship is a significant problem that spans the demographic spectrum.'
Source DR. PANE