[Quality of professional life (QoPL) among primary care workers in area 7 of the Madrid Autonomous Region]

Abstract

Objective: To describe the QoPL as perceived by Primary Care workers in the Primary Care Area 7 and to describe the progress since 2004.

Material and methods: Cross - sectional study carried out in the Primary Care Area 7 in June 2008. Participants were all primary care workers (n=1003). Main measurements were: the CVP-35 questionnaire (anonymous and self-administered) and socio-demographic and professional variables that could be associated with QoPL. Results were compared to those obtained in previous years (2004-2006).

Results: Positive answers: 47%. By dimension, average scores were: perception of demands: 6.09, managerial support: 5.10 and intrinsic motivation: 7.56. Nurses, physiotherapists, and nursing assistants had significantly higher scores in intrinsic motivation, managerial support and quality of life. The individuals who carried out management activities had higher scores in managerial support and intrinsic motivation items. Slight improvements were seen in perception of demands, managerial support and quality of life.

Conclusions: Item analysis allows us to develop improvement plans and subsequently evaluate their results. In this sense, we observed slight improvements, according to planned strategies, based on perceived demands in previous years. Some of these strategies have been recently introduced, so future evaluations using the CVP-35 questionnaire are needed in order to analyse their effectiveness.