Attitudes to job turnover among Finnish anaesthetists

Background Structural changes have led to higher workload andmore frequent conflicts among hospital staff, which in turnhas been shown to be associated with increased employee turnover. Aims To study the willingness of anaesthetists to change theiremployment and factors associated with it. Work-related, individualand family-related factors were investigated as potential influenceson such willingness. Method A postal questionnaire was sent to all working Finnishanaesthetists (N = 550). Results The response rate was 60%; 175 (53% of responders) weremen. Of the respondents, 31% were willing to consider changingto another physician's job and 43% to a profession other thanmedicine. The most important correlates for these views wereconflicts with superiors (odds ratio 6.1; 95% confidence interval2.1–17.7) and co-workers (4.2; 1.4–12.2), low jobcontrol (2.6; 1.4–4.9), a sense of organizational injustice(2.4; 1.3–4.6), stress (6.5; 2.6–16.3) and job dissatisfaction(4.6; 2.4–8.8). Conclusions The establishment of respect, trust and genuinedialogue between co-workers and superiors is needed to minimizethe risk of loss of members of this occupational group.