Analysis of occupational identity among family doctor teams and its influencing factors in Chengdu

Background The contracted family doctor services are the embodiment of the implementation of the new medical reform policy, and the transformation of the grass-roots health service mode. Studies have proved that the occupational stress in medical staff was at a high level. The enhancement of professional identity will contribute to strengthen team building, alleviate job burnout, and reduce turnover intention of family doctors.

Objective To investigate the current situation of occupational identity among family doctor teams in Chengdu, to examine potential influencing factors of occupational identity, and to provide a reference for promoting career development and team building of family doctor teams.

Methods Multi-stage random cluster sampling was adopted to enroll study participants form 46 primary healthcare centers where family doctor contract services were implemented among 23 districts and counties in Chengdu between March 4 and 26, 2021. A total of 2 681 family doctors participated in this survey. A self-reported survey was conducted to collect participants' demographic and occupational data. The Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI）questionnaire was implemented to assess occupational stress. The Professional Identity Scale was used to appraise occupational identity.

Results A total of 2 327 valid questionnaires were collected, with a valid recovery rate of 86.80%, involving 1 715 females (73.7%) and 612 males (26.3%), with dominant age groups of 26−35 years (43.3%) and 36−45 years (30.4%), a high proportion of being married (82.8%), having college (36.0%) and undergraduate (47.3%) education, a high proportion of primary titles (66.0%) and informal work contract (66.1%). About 88.7% of family doctor team workers reported occupational stress. The average score of occupational identity was (3.68±0.62) points. There were significant differences in occupational identity scores among different professional title, work contract, working years in medical institutions, income, and effort/reward ratio (EER) groups (P < 0.05). ERR was negatively correlated with occupational identity (r_s=−0.495, P<0.05）. The multiple regression model showed that occupational identity score in the non-staffed participants was lower than the score in the staffed ones (OR=0.429, 95%CI: 0.299−0.825). The occupational identity score in the participants having associate senior title or above was higher than in without professional title (OR=1.424, 95%CI: 1.194−2.328). The longer the working years, the higher the occupational identity score among the participants. The score of the more than 20 working years group was 1.820 times that of the less than 5 working years group (95%CI: 1.342−2.543). The higher the income, the higher the occupational identity score. The score of the 9001−12000 yuan per month group was 1.977 times that of the 1000−3000 yuan per month group (95%CI: 0.811−9.696) , and the score of the more than 12000 yuan per month group was 2.283 times that of the 1000−3000 yuan per month group (95%CI: 1.199−10.267）.

Conclusion The family doctor team workers generally report occupational stress, and their occupational identity is at a medium level in Chengdu. Relevant managers should implement intervention measures against the main influencing factors to reduce their work tension and improve their occupational identity.