title: AME survey-003 A1-part1: in current China, do you regret you joined the medical profession.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The medical workforce constitutes the foundation of the provision of health services in all countries. The effectiveness of health systems and the quality of health services are directly related to the performance of health workers. Satisfaction level of the job affects the quality of care for patients. An anonymous on-line survey was conducted with the aim to obtain a better understanding of the current morale of Chinese medical professionals.
  
  
  METHODS
  An online cross-sectional questionnaire based survey was conducted during the period of Sep 10-23, 2015, via the platform provided by DXY (www.dxy.cn), which is the largest medical and paramedical related website in China. In addition to demographics of the participants, a particular question was asked to the participants, in current China do you regret you joined the medical profession? This initial report analyzed the relationship between the participants with 'No' or 'Yes' answers to their demographic characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total 2,356 DXY users completed the survey, including 1,740 males (73.82%) and 617 females (26.18%), with a mean age of 31.96±7.03 yrs. There were more participants from relatively economically developed eastern coast areas. The N/Y (no regret participants vs. regretted participants ratio) ratio for all participants was 1.06 (P=0.181). The N/Y ratio of males and females was 1.04 and 1.11 respectively, and there was no significant difference in this ratio among them. There were 1,549 participants from IIIA hospitals (65.72%, N/Y ratio =1.15, P=0.008), followed by IIIB & IIA hospitals (25.46%, N/Y ratio =0.87, P=0.086), IIB & II C hospitals (3.7%, N/Y ratio =0.83, P=0.394), and lastly 1A & 1B clinics (2.6%, N/Y ratio =1.35, P=0.249). A total of 1,323 participants (56.13%) were trainee doctors with N/Y ratio of 1.19 (P=0.002), followed by lecturer-level attending specialists (27.79%, N/Y ratio =0.81, P=0.009), associate principle doctors (12.43%, N/Y ratio =1.01, P=0.953), and lastly principle doctors (3.73%, N/Y ratio =1.59, P=0.033). Specialties with less stressful workload such as radiology and traditional Chinese medicine have the highest job satisfaction, while doctors in accident and emergency cluster have the least job satisfaction. Medical professionals from Yunnan, Gansu and Shanxi have relatively higher positive response (higher N/Y ratio), despite the fact that these are not the economically advanced regions in China; while Jiangsu, an economically advanced province, had relatively higher negative response (lower N/Y ratio).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The morale of majority medical professional in China mainland is likely to be positive. Job satisfaction is inversely related to work related stress level, but may not related to the absolute income.
authors.affiliation: Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China.
authors.forename: Yì-Xiáng J
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Wáng
authors.affiliation: Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China.
authors.forename: Yáo T
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: L
keywords: China; clinical specialty; income; job satisfaction; stress; survey