Determinants of Faculty Job Satisfaction And Potential Implications for Physician Assistant Program Personnel

Faculty members who enter academe from the ranks of practicing health professionals, unlike those in some other disciplines, always have the option of leaving education and returning to professional practice in their individual disciplines. However, in order to facilitate a continuous supply of practitioners for society, a certain number of health professionals must choose careers in academe to teach new generations of health care providers. Satisfaction with educational careers translates into faculty retention and stability in academic programs. The purpose of this literature review was to examine what has been studied relating to faculty job satisfaction in higher education and, particularly, in academic medicine. It was hoped that this review would provide insight into the critical factors contributing to job satisfaction and faculty retention in physician assistant (PA) programs, as well as provide information that would assist PA program leadership in assessing those factors to preserve the often scarce but valuable resource of satisfied PA program faculty.