ArticleRisk management and healthcare policy2026
Professional Compromise and Its Association with Burnout, Job Satisfaction, and Patient Satisfaction Among Physicians in a Chinese Tertiary Hospital.
Article in Risk management and healthcare policy, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
Background: Physician burnout poses a global challenge to healthcare systems. Professional compromise-pressure on physicians to deviate from clinical judgment or professional standards due to systemic constraints-may contribute to burnout, yet evidence from non-Western settings remains limited. This study examined the prevalence of professional compromise among physicians at a Chinese tertiary hospital and its associations with burnout, job satisfaction, turnover intention, and departmental patient satisfaction. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between January and March 2025 at a tertiary hospital in Zhejiang Province, China (n=120 physicians; 10 clinical departments; response rate 80.0%). Professional compromise was measured with a validated five-item instrument adapted from the Measure of Moral Distress for Healthcare Professionals; burnout was assessed using the Emotional Exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (licensed from Mind Garden, Inc). Pearson correlations, independent t-tests, and chi-square tests examined associations; effect sizes were quantified using Cohen's d and odds ratios. Results: The mean professional compromise score was 3.85 (SD 0.55) on a 1-5 scale, with 50.0% of physicians reporting frequent compromise (score ≥4). Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Emergency Medicine departments exhibited the highest compromise rates. Professional compromise correlated positively with burnout (r=0.587, p<0.001) and negatively with job satisfaction (r=-0.347, p<0.001). High-compromise physicians had substantially higher burnout (Cohen's d=0.97), lower job satisfaction (Cohen's d=0.57), and greater turnover intention (55.0% vs. 28.3%; OR=3.09, 95% CI 1.41-6.77). At the department level (n=10), professional compromise correlated negatively with patient satisfaction (r=-0.929, p<0.001). Conclusion: Professional compromise was prevalent and robustly associated with adverse clinician outcomes. These findings suggest that systemic contributors to professional compromise warrant attention in strategies to improve clinician well-being and healthcare quality. Longitudinal multi-site research is needed to confirm these associations and evaluate targeted interventions.
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