Introduction

In Peru, the quality of university education is evaluated by the National Superintendence of Higher University Education, the entity in charge of granting authorization for the operation of universities in the country. To this end, it includes eight basic quality criteria, within which the profile and functions performed by a university professor are cornerstones of the process to grant the license and accreditation (¹).

According to the University Law (Ley Universitaria) 30220, the functions of university professor include research and the continuous and permanent improvement of teaching in their professional field and of university management, in the areas that correspond to them. In this sense, it is very important to develop a culture of self-evaluation of the teaching work, especially because it is one of the fundamental elements in the training process of professionals (²,³).

The quality of professional life (QoPL) of a university professor is defined as the set of criteria that allow him/her to develop in his/her work environment and the experience of well-being resulting from the perception of balance between the demands of a professional practice and the resources available to meet them, so as to achieve optimal development in the professional, family and personal spheres. This QoPL has two aspects: subjective, which refers to the sensation of the individual with himself, and objective, the material well-being and the relations with the environment (⁴, ⁵, ⁶).

The following dimensions were evaluated: intrinsic motivation, hour load and managerial support. The first, according to Richard Ryan and Edward L. Deci, is defined as motivation based on the satisfaction inherent in the activity itself, rather than on contingencies or reinforcements that may be operationally separable from it (cited in ⁷).

The second is defined as the degree of mobilization that the individual involves in order to execute the task, as well as the physical and mental mechanisms that must be put into play to determine the hour load. The latter is defined as the set of psychophysical requirements to which the worker feels subjected throughout the working day (⁸).

According to Stephen Anderson, managerial support corresponds to being the leader to offer a good educational service. Managerial leadership is the main point for the combination of the elements of the system, in order to produce effects that are not possible without its presence; it influences the success and the improvement of learning in schools (⁹).

QoPL is important for the optimal development of the medical professor. However, there is little research on the subject in Peru and none has been done in the Lambayeque region. Due to this, the present project is of great relevance, since the findings will allow us to place ourselves in the work context of the professors of the faculty of medicine of a university in Lambayeque. These results will be contrasted with similar studies carried out by other authors in research carried out in the country, and as this is a pioneering study in the region, Lambayeque will serve as a basis for future research. On the other hand, we decided to study the QoPL of medical professors, since their teaching of knowledge and values will have an impact on the practices and future consultations of current students and future doctors with their patients.

This leads us to the following question: what is the level of QoPL of professors in the faculty of medicine of a university in Lambayeque, Peru?

The objective of this research was to determine the level of QoPL of the professors of a faculty of medicine of a university in Lambayeque. The faculty of medicine of that university is made up of four schools: psychology, nursing, human medicine and dentistry. This allows to establish detailed conclusions for each of them, and to establish an overall result as a whole. In addition, knowing the QoPL of the professors allows us to have an idea of the working conditions and provide suggestions or recommendations that favor their work and educational environment, since it is considered that this topic has not been explored much (¹⁰).

Materials and methods

Cross-sectional descriptive study conducted at the Universidad Católica Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo. From a population of 264 professors of the Faculty of Medicine, a sample of 159 professors was obtained. They were chosen in proportion to the number of professors per school, using the OpenEpi software, with a design effect of one. An expected frequency of 50% was used, assuming that the professors have a good QoPL (¹¹).

Results

In relation to the socio-demographic and labor variables, it was found that 55% (88) of those surveyed were female professors. Likewise, most of the professors are married, with 67.9% (108), followed by single professors, with 29.6% (47), and widowed, with 2.5% (4). Similarly, of the number of professors assigned proportionally to the schools, 47.2% (75) correspond to medicine, 22.7% (44) to nursing, 16.4% (26) to dentistry and 8.8% (14) to psychology. In terms of the number of children, 30.2% (48) have no children; 15.7% (25) have one child; 23.9% (38) have two; 22% (35) have three; and 8.2% (13) have four or more children. With respect to the type of contract, 52.2% (83) of the professors in the Faculty of Medicine have a fixed-term contract, while 47.8% (76) have a specific contract (see Table 1).

Table 1 Sociodemographic and labor variables of professorsn = 159 professors of the Faculty of Medicine. 

The QoPL-35 instrument evaluates three dimensions. With respect to intrinsic motivation and managerial support, 98.7% and 86.6% say it is good, respectively. However, in the dimension of hour load, 21.4% (34) indicates that it is good, and 78.6% (125) indicates that it is poor, because an inadequate distribution of working hours generates discomfort among the professors of the Faculty of Medicine (Table 2).

Table 2 Dimensions of the quality of professional lifen = 159 professors of the Faculty of Medicine. 

According to the data obtained, professors of the School of Human Medicine have an average QoPL of 6.49; the Nursing School, an average of 6.43; Psychology, an average of 6.01, and Dentistry, an average of 6.05. Based on this, it was determined that all the professors of the four schools that make up the Faculty of Medicine have a good QoPL.

The average QoPL for female professors was 6.43, and for male professors it was 6.26. This result shows that both have a good QoPL. It should be noted that women outperform men in the final score.

With respect to the marital status, married professors present an average QoPL of 6.44; single professors, an average of 6.12, and widowers, an average of 7.0. Regarding the type of contract, the average QoPL of those with a fixed-term contract is 6.39, while the specific contract presents an average QoPL of 6.32.

In terms of the number of hours/week, professors working 40 hours/week had an average score of 6.46, followed by professors working more than 20 hours/week, with an average of 6.44; those working less than 20 hours had an average score of 6.26, and those working 20 hours a week had an average score of 5.91. This shows a directly proportional relationship in the first two cases, where the greater the number of hours/week, the greater the QoPL. However, the last two cases show that professors who work less than 20 hours have a better QoPL, in contrast to those who work exactly 20 hours (Table 3).

Table 3 Quality of professional life of professors in the Faculty of Medicine categorized by sex marital status and contract regimen = 159 professors of the Faculty of Medicine. 

Discussion

The professors of the Faculty of Medicine presented an overall average QoPL of 6.28. Considering the study of Muñoz Quezada and Lucero Moncada (¹⁶), this would be considered a good level, although the score would be close to the cut-off point, which is 5 points, which was obtained in the validation of the instrument to delimit good quality of professional life (greater than 5), and poor (less than 5). The overall score was lower than that found in a study of dental professors at a Chilean university (7.3 points), although it was higher than the score found for nurses working in the intensive care department of a Spanish university (average of 4 points) and for health professionals in Cuyo, Argentina (6 points) (¹²,¹⁶, ¹⁷, ¹⁸).

Almost all of the faculty members had good intrinsic motivation (99%), with an overall average of 7.9, and the most intrinsically motivated were the professors in the Nursing School, with an average of 8.30 points (SD = 0.7). The intrinsic motivation regarding the QoPL was higher than that of a study of nurses in the emergency department of a Spanish hospital, which found an average of 7.4 for this dimension (¹⁴). However, it was lower than the motivation found for professors in the dental school of a Chilean university (average of 8.4 points) (¹⁹).

The QoPL of the professors of the Faculty of Medicine was poor with respect to the hour load dimension, with an overall average of 4.57 points, and 78.6% obtained a score of poor QoPL. This was the worst-rated dimension, and the findings are consistent with those found in other studies. Thus, for example, Moya et al. (¹⁷) and Sanchez et al. (²⁰) found excessive workload, which received the lowest score in a study of dental professors, with an average of 5.10 points (¹²). In addition, the overall score of this dimension for professors in this study was lower than the score reported by Fernandez Araque et al. (²¹), with an average of 5.71 points.

With respect to managerial support, there are no major differences with respect to gender or marital status. However, it was noted that dental professors obtained a lower average (5.8 points) compared to medical professors (6.7 points), which would indicate that professors of the Dental School consider that they receive less managerial support. Nor were there any major differences in the QoPL rating for managerial support according to working hours per week, since the values were around 6.5 points. It was found that professors with a fixed-term contract considered that they had more managerial support (average 6.8 points) than those with a specific contract (average 6.16 points). In general, the professors of the Faculty of Medicine obtained a global score for managerial support (6.37 points) higher than that found by Moya et al. (¹⁷), with an average of 6.29 points for dental professors (Chile), although there it was found that there was a significant difference with respect to the years of work, something that was not measured in the present paper and that could be complemented with future research.

In a study carried out in Peru of 174 professors of a faculty of medicine, it was determined that QoPL is directly and positively related to the teaching competence of the professors of that university, since a correlation of 0.592 was obtained, which is positive. Of the 56.3% of professors with low quality of life, 30.5% have a low level of teaching competence. This indicates a very close relationship between the situation of professors in relation to their quality of life and the level they show in their professional competence (²²).

In a study conducted with Ecuadorian professors using the QoPL-35, an average of 4 in intrinsic motivation was found, 3.49 in managerial support, and 2.95 in hour load. Thus, the results of the study show a below-average score in managerial support, while intrinsic motivation obtained the highest scores, according to the perception of the respondents. Although this gives us a diagnosis of how professors feel about their quality of work life, it is not a determining factor, but rather an opportunity to improve and for professors to be more likely to feel better in their daily activities (²³).

In that sense, the contributions of this research to the scientific community are based on the presentation of reliable statistics that show the factors that influence the QoPL of professors of the faculty of medicine of a university of Lambayeque, including the four schools that make it up: psychology, nursing, dentistry and human medicine. The same professors are in charge of the conscientious training of new health professionals, which invites us to meditate on the importance of seeking a good QoPL to guarantee a suitable and comprehensive training for future generations.

In conclusion, it is determined that the professors of the faculty of medicine of a university in Lambayeque have a good level of QoPL, since professors assigned proportionally to the four school were surveyed: 47.2% to medicine, 22.7% to nursing, 16.4% to dentistry and 8.8% to psychology. Although the results for each dimension are very varied, almost all professors have good intrinsic motivation (98.7%). In terms of managerial support (86.6%), there are no major differences in terms of gender, marital status (single or married), or number of working hours per week. However, it was found that dental professors have a lower perceived QoPL on this dimension. On the other hand, professors perceive a poor QoPL about the hour load (78.6%), so it is recommended to work on it with the decision makers at that university.