Background: Job satisfaction is important for life satisfaction as well as for quality of patient care. There are many identified factors that are correlated with both satisfaction and dissatisfaction in physical therapy (PT). One of the factors creating dissatisfaction in the field of PT may be educational debt load. As the requirements for degree confirmation and the cost of education have increased, students graduate with greater amounts of debt. Evidence in the medical literature suggestes that physicians and other health care professionals pursue specialties often because of the influence of salary potential. Working in higher paying settings may not produce the same degree of satisfaction, if the decision is based primarily on financial considerations only. Purpose: To explore job satisfaction in the field of physical therapy and investigate if an how much educational debt load is factor. Methods: This study was a mixed method, two-party study design. Phase I was an electronic survey, 1,060 surveys were completed and analyzed. Phase II was qualitative study consisting of a telephone interview, in which 24 PTs from acute care, skilled nursing, and outpatient orthopedics were interviewed. Individuals with either high debt or low debt, high satisfaction or low satisfaction were all represented. The Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) and a visual analog scale (VAS) were used to assess satisfaction levels. Results: JSS and VAS were found to have a strong correlation with each other. Demographic factors, including debt, showed little correlation or predictive ability with either satisfaction measure. Qualitatively, all PTs interviewed were highly concerned with the increasing educational debt load students assume. Several primary and lower order themes emerged as satisfaction related to debt: education, work, and financial. Conclusions: Educational debt load was a major concern for all interviewed, whether they had debt or not. Experienced therapists that may have had very little initial debt or more significant amounts of debt but have paid it off were often more concerned than newer therapists that have significantly large amounts of debt. Debt did not appear to significantly influence choice of specialty or location of work for most people. Debt was not a strong indicator or greater or lesser degrees of satisfaction.
