Job Satisfaction and Psychiatric Morbidity among Resident Doctors in Selected Teaching Hospitals in Southern Nigeria: A web-based Survey

Background: Job satisfaction is a means of contributing to overall life satisfaction and employees rsquo; mental health. This study aimed to assess the level of job satisfaction and to determine the association between job satisfaction and psychiatric morbidity. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was a webbased survey conducted among 187 resident doctors in four selected teaching hospitals in Southern Nigeria. Data were collected within the time period of AugustOctober, 2018. Job satisfaction was assessed using a singleitem satisfaction measure scored on a 5point Likert scale. In addition, psychological morbidity was assessed using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)12 as the instrument. The Pearson rsquo;s correlation coefficient and the chisquared statistic were used to assess the association between job satisfaction and psychological morbidity. Results: The respondents mean age was 36.5 ± 5.4. The majority of them (60.9%) were married, 58.1% were male, and 69.8% were senior registrars. The mean years of work experience was 9.8 ± 4.2. Only 50 (26.7%) respondents expressed overall job satisfaction. The mean score of the GHQ12 instrument was 14.4 ± 7.4 using the Likert scoring scale and 4.0 ± 3.5 using the GHQ scoring method. About threequarters (76.7%) and 57.2% of the participants were probable psychiatric cases when the Likert and GHQ cutoffs were applied, respectively. There was a moderate and significant correlation between job satisfaction scores and scores of the GHQ12 instrument (r = 0.5, p = 0.01). Conclusion: The respondents demonstrated a low level of job satisfaction and a corresponding high level of psychiatric morbidity.