Satisfied naturopathic practitioners? Results from a job satisfaction survey in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Introduction Job satisfaction is an important quality indicator for health care. Interestingly, to date, little data exists about the job satisfaction of naturopathic practitioners although the number of these practitioners in Germany is steadily growing. The aim of the study was to evaluate job satisfaction of naturopathic practitioners and to explore associations between overall job satisfaction, individual characteristics and satisfaction with aspects of work. Methods The cross-sectional study was based on a job satisfaction survey with a sample of 1,096 naturopathic practitioners in the German federal state Schleswig-Holstein. Job satisfaction was measured with the 10-item Warr-Cook-Wall questionnaire. Stepwise linear regression analysis was performed with overall job satisfaction, individual characteristics and aspects of work. Results Out of 1,096 questionnaires distributed, 322 questionnaires from naturopathic practitioners were returned (response rate 29.4%). They were highly satisfied with freedom of working method and less satisfied with income. Higher overall job satisfaction was strongly associated with freedom of working method, hours of work, colleagues, opportunity to use abilities, income and amount of variety in the job. Conclusions The results showed that naturopathic practitioners are very satisfied with their job. However, research about this professional group is limited to date and should be enlarged upon, especially in the area of quality of care, given that this is an unregulated health practitioner workforce, which is growing in Germany and can have an impact on patient health outcomes.