Practice Characteristics and Lifestyle Choices of Men and Women Physician Assistants and the Relationship to Career Satisfaction.

摘要

Introduction. Since 60% of currently practicing physician assistants (PAs) are women, it is critical to identify any gender-related differences in career satisfaction. Currently, in the PA literature, there are no data regarding women PAs beliefs about the ability to balance personal and professional responsibilities and its influence on career satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to identify practice characteristics and lifestyle choices of practicing PAs, determine if there are any gender-related differences, and ascertain whether a relationship exists between gender and career satisfaction.;Methods. This is a descriptive, correlational study using a web-based survey. The survey addresses: career satisfaction, lifestyle choices, professional practice characteristics, and gender concerns. Randomly selected PAs (800 men and 800 women) received an email invitation to complete the survey. Nonparametric testing (Chi-square analysis, Mann Whitney U, and Spearman's rho) was used to analyze the data.;Results. One hundred eighty-two clinically practicing respondents (85 men and 97 women) were included in the analyses. The women respondents tended to be younger with more women than men between the ages of 25 to 35 years old. More men (82.4%) than women (59.8%) were married; a significant association between gender and domestic status was found, X2(3, N=182) = 11.51, p = .009. The way that men rated career satisfaction was not significantly different than the way women did, Mann Whitney U = 3916.5, p = 0.47, with more than 65% of men and women completely agreeing with the statement, "I am satisfied with my career as a Physician Assistant." Eighty-three percent of men and women PAs believed that they can balance their personal and professional responsibilities.;Conclusions. Even as women PAs reported spending more time than men on traditional household tasks, both felt that they were able to effectively balance family and work responsibilities. A relationship between career satisfaction and gender was not found in the population of PAs surveyed. While the sample was small, it does represent the demographics of PAs currently in practice and thus supports the assumption that the PA profession affords the ability to balance responsibilities and potentially promotes career satisfaction.