Satisfaction of the Clinical Teachers on Standardized Residency Training Program (SRTP) in China

Background: Standardized Residency Training Program (SRTP) is a significant initiative to deepen health systems and medical education in developed countries like China. Despite prompting the SRTP nationwide and implementing it with various improvements, Chinese continuous medical education is still in its infancy. Compared with the residents, little is known about clinical teachers under SRTP in China; but clinical teachers effectively determine the training quality as a critical disseminator of knowledge, skills, and values in medical practice. Thus, the study aims to analyze critical factors affecting their cognitive job satisfaction and provide continuous improvements for SRTP. Methods: : From December 1, 2018, to May 31, 2019, we conducted a self-design questionnaire from 13 SRTPs (including both training bases and professional bases) in Shaoxing city to evaluate participants' satisfaction. Altogether, 574 clinical teachers responded to the survey with generally high overall satisfaction. We adopted Chi-square Test and Fisher's Exact Test to evaluate the single impact factors affecting the satisfaction of clinical teachers. The multiple factors analysis applied the Logistic Regression model. Results: : The male clinical teachers had significant differences in satisfaction of teaching content (OR: 0.675, [95%CI: 0.477~0.953]), conflicts between study and work (OR: 0.542, [95%CI: 0.371~0.791]), the attention of leaders (OR: 0.403, [95%CI: 0.252~0.645]) and subsidies of teachers (OR: 0.527, [95%CI: 0.347~0.805]). Compared with internal medicine, clinical teachers from Surgery (OR: 2.396, [95%CI: 1.365-4.206]) and other departments (OR: 2.409, [95%CI: 1.406-4.129]) were more satisfied when considered residents have high motivation on training. Besides, compared with attending physician, deputy chief physician (OR: 0.493, [95%CI: 0.310- 0.783]) and chief physician (OR: 0.683, [95%CI: 0.471-0.991]) more disagreed that residents' wage is good enough. Conclusion: Clinical teachers widely recognize the SRTP. However, teachers' satisfaction varied due to different genders, working clinical departments, and professional titles. The study also discussed possible reasons and strategy implications behind these findings, which combined unique Chinese society characteristics. Further, we believe the analysis and interpretations remind us of the applications of Western medical education methods, and theories also should consider the unique socio-cultural challenges.