The first installment of the NCAH Health Industry Satisfaction Survey (HISS) was conducted throughout November. Hundreds of health professionals across Australia and New Zealand participated in the survey.

The objective of the HISS survey is to allow health professionals to have a collective say about the state of the health system from their perspective. As the survey will be conducted on a quarterly basis, an index of their survey responses will produce an interesting trend line which will provide an important input into the assessment of the improvement or otherwise of the health system across Australasia.

The survey responses are categorised into Job Satisfaction, Facilities & Services, and Overall which is a combination of the two other components.

Job Satisfaction:

The Job Satisfaction component of the survey is focused on the survey respondents own personal experience of the health system as it relates to their job. Questions include:

• Is your job rewarding and professionally stimulating?
• Do you have opportunities for career progression?
• What is your level of job stress?
• How is morale amongst your colleagues?

Facilities & Services:

The Facilities & Services component of the survey is intended to draw the respondents own perception of the facilities and services at their place of work. Questions include:

• Does your facility provide an excellent standard of patient care?
• Is the facility appropriately funded and resourced
• Does your facility utilise the best available technology
• Is your facility adequately staffed

Based on the survey responses, a score out of 24was allocated to the Job Satisfaction Component, and a score out of 20 was allocated to the Facilities & Services Component, with the two combined to establish an overall score with a maximum of 44.

November 2010 - HISS Survey Results

As this is the first installment of a survey which is primarily conducted with a view to generating an index over time, the results to date can only be used to compare satisfaction levelsbetween states and some industry groups, such as private vs public health system workers.

State by State Comparison:

Results in the table above are limited to those states to which a statistically significant sample of results were obtained.

As the maximum score associated with the 'Job Satisfaction' component is 24, while the maximum 'Facilities & Services' score is 20, the overall results don't generally indicate that health professionals across the board are overly enthralled by the health system nor their own level of job satisfaction.

The survey results indicate that the best performing state is Victoria driven largely by its relatively high 'Job Satisfaction' score.

Public vs Private

The survey results indicated that health professionals working in the private sector were much more positive about the system, particularly in terms of the facilities and services provided.

Next Survey:

The next installment of the Health Industry Satisfaction Survey will be conducted in February 2011.