Psychological Work Environment and Professional Satisfaction Among Indian Audiologists

Abstract

Objective: The study examined self-reported work environment and professional satisfaction among Indian audiologists.

Method: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted using the demand-control-support questionnaire (DCSQ), a short version of the effort-reward-imbalance (ERI) questionnaire and open-ended questions to explore professional issues. Seventy-one Indian audiologists participated in the survey.

Results: No association was found between demographic factors (i.e., gender, education, work type, and work settings) and the DCSQ and ERI sub-scales. Using the demand control model, 14% of audiologists reported working in a high-stress psychological work environment. Using the ERI ratio to estimate the imbalance between efforts and reward, it was observed that 72% of the participants experienced unfavourable working situations where the reward did not correspond to the effort made. Audiologists identified various professional issues including ‘lack of awareness of the profession among public’ and ‘unethical practice by other professionals and unqualified people is a concern’, and also made some suggestions on how to overcome them.

Conclusions: The results suggest that a high percentage of audiologists perceive to be practising in high effort-low reward working conditions in comparison with audiologists in other countries such as Sweden. Further work is required to understand, and possibly overcome various professional concerns raised by audiologists.