Determinants of professional satisfaction among palliative care physicians and nurses

Introduction. - We were interested in learning how physicians and nurses perceive their experience as palliative care providers. We decided to investigate the words they use to describe their feelings to analyze their gratifications and difficulties. Method. - We analyzed the responses given by palliative care professionals to open questions using the Presst-Next survey for nurses (n = 80) and the Sesmat survey for physicians (n = 72). Results. - The main elements of satisfaction were the contacts made with patients and families as well as the teamwork environment. The negative elements mainly involved the lack of means and administrative tasks for the physicians and the daily confrontation with death for nurses. Discussion. - The satisfaction palliative care healthcare professionals receive from their work mainly involves the teamwork, the quality of their care practices within a special philosophy of care and working within a specific working environment. Inversely, the lack of sufficient means contributes to greater psychic workload and increases tiredness. (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.