Job satisfaction and occupational stress among Greek National Health System dentists in Crete

OBJECTIVE To assess the levels of job satisfaction and occupational stress among dentists working in the public sector, and the ways in which job satisfaction affects various dimensions of their lives. METHOD The participants were 41 dentists (85.4% response rate) working in the hospitals and primary health care units (health units and health centers) of the 7th Health Region of Crete. The study took place from December 2017 to April 2018. The participants completed, via e-mail, the Greek version of the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) questionnaire, and provided demographic data. Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 24.0. RESULTS A moderate degree of both job satisfaction and professional stress was recorded by the dentists. The percentage of the participants for whom the effort/reward (ER) ratio was greater than 1, was 53.7%, and 24.4% showed a rate of over-commitment/dedication to work of greater than 16. Statistically significant differences were observed, on both the Professional Safety/Reward Expectations and the Fair Professional Reward sub-scales, according to age, employment relationship, years since graduation and seniority in the National Health System. CONCLUSIONS The findings of this study highlight the need for intervention, and could be helpful in planning activities to improve the working conditions and increase the level of job satisfaction among dentists in the public sector, and thus to ensure quality of dental care. Further research is needed in this area.