Job to career satisfaction spillover among physician's assistants.

From the empirical studies that generalize the individual's job satisfaction to his life satisfaction, a meta-level hypothesis was developed to suggest a positive association between the physician's assistant's satisfaction with his current job and his satisfaction with his broader occupational or career choice. A questionnaire was mailed to 280 graduates of two Physician's Assistant Programs. Data analysis is based on 170 returns. Job satisfaction is measured with an amended version of the Job Description Inventory that includes a patient satisfaction component. Job satisfaction is found to relate positively to a global measure of career satisfaction, with the work satisfaction component explaining most of the variance in career satisfaction.