Happiness

It is not uncommon for folks to lament over how much woe has befallen them. It's not uncommon to read how stressed and fraught and frazzled folk are.

Is this all just a good old cathartic moan, or are most medics miserable?

Most GPs I know go through ups and downs but, overall, like their jobs. Last week one was saying how privileged he felt (even so many years in to his career) to be able to share in patients' confidences and try and improve things with them. Some GPs write very eloquently about work in Primary Care now, some rant about the environment they have to work in, very few slate the work with patients.

Most psychiatrists I know are happy, or at least satisfied and content most of the time, with good patches of happiness and levity. Sure, some are more frazzled. But looking around at GPs and psychiatrists and talking with them, most seem to be doing okay.

Looking in to this, it should not be surprising.

A longditudinal study in 2005 found most doctors were happy with higher levels of job satisfaction than folk working in comparable professional groups.

Any subgroups standing out? Glad you asked. Why, yes there were, ". . . psychiatrists and primary care doctors reported a higher level of job satisfaction than the average."

So it's not just me . . . there can be a reason for optomism, the nature of our work lending itself nicely towards high job satisfaction and personal happiness.

Huzzah!