Perspectives on the physiotherapy profession: a survey of Canadian Physiotherapy Association members.

This study was designed to assess the professional satisfaction of a national sample of physiotherapists, all members of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association (CPA). A questionnaire was sent to 984 CPA members; 82.1% responded. Rather than analyzing the satisfaction items separately, the investigators used factor analysis to search for underlying structures in the responses. The principal component analysis indicated that there were four discrete patterns of covariation in the responses, and the resulting factors were labelled "professional interests," "patient care", "supervision" and "work conditions", in accordance with the content of the items grouped into each factor. The combination of these cores plus the results of a global ranking of the profession indicated a consistently high level of overall satisfaction on the part of the CPA therapists. As for characteristics and career patterns, the female CPA members appeared to move in an out of professional practice while the male members pursued careers. The reasons for the low level of professional satisfaction on the part of an albeit small minority of physiotherapists were found to be associated with dissatisfaction with working conditions. Further research is required to relate physiotherapists' satisfaction with their profession to their career decisions.