Background: The nuclear medicine physician community in Pakistan has seen attrition as many (almost 15%) young trained nuclear medicine physicians have opted to change their specialty. This has important implications for future nuclear medicine physicians numbers and raises questions about professional satisfaction and perception of future prospects among them. This prompted the authors to do a formal professional satisfaction survey. The survey also included those nuclear medicine physicians who had changed their specialty. This was done in the hope of getting an insight into the reasons of this rather unprecedented exodus of nuclear rnedictne physicians from the profession. Methods: A 12-item job satisfaction survey was designed and sent to nuclear medicine physicians of Pakistan who had completed their MSc (Nuclear Medicine) within the last 10 years. It addressed various dimensions including professional satisfaction with the job, perception of usefulness in patient management questions (as might arise in a clinico-pathological conference), perception of adequacy of training to answer commonly encountered clinical questions, future prospects, income and professional prestige. Additional data was collected in form of suggestions regarding desire of additional training and suggestions for change in the current programme. The questionnaire was sent by E-mail to 32 nuclear medicine physicians with 27 of 32 (84.4%) responders. Results: 16 out of 27 young nuclear medicine physicians (59.3%) were not happy professionally; however most of them(81.5%) considered themselves useful in clinico-pathological conferences. 16 (59.3%) would not choose nuclear medicine again as their profession. if given a chance. All considered that the professional infrastructure is not adequate in the country. 13 (48.1 %) thought that their future is not secure while 16 (59.3%) believed that the field is not professionally satisfying and financially rewarding. 25 (92.6%) considered that the MSc (nuclear medicine) syllabus needs to be revised. 9 (33.3%) want additional training (FCPS) in nuclear medicine and 15 (55.6%) thought their MSc course provided enough skills and knowledge. 9 (33.3%) would like to start private practice. Almost half (14,51.9%) thought that they needed additional training in complementary imaging modalities. When the data was broken up into those who had graduated within 5 years versus those who had graduated before 5 years, it appeared that there was greater satisfaction in the older group as compared to the younger participants. Conclusion: This survey points to significant levels of dissatisfaction among the population under study about their perceptions of the parameters of professional satisfaction. This survey should alert the policy makers, administrators and educators of urgent need address these perceptions and perhaps bring the training programmes and the service milieu in line with professional and in a way that would foster satisfaction and personal growth.
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