Physician well-being is a crucial element not only for the practice of family medicine but also for the performance of the health care system. Family medicine in Quebec faces major challenges, including declining retention, a shortage of family physicians, and a lack of attractiveness of the profession. To address these challenges and promote family medicine in Quebec, the Table nationale de concertation sur la valorisation de la médecine de famille was established in 2023 with the mandate to develop a plan bringing together all measures needed to enhance the value of family medicine practice and ensure their coordination. This report presents the results of a collaboration between the research team and the Table’s committee aimed at describing the state of well-being and job satisfaction among family physicians practicing in Quebec and examining the factors associated with their well-being.

A cross-sectional survey was sent to all family physicians practicing in Quebec (N = 10,591) between December 2023 and July 2024. A total of 1,252 respondents were included (response rate: 11.8%). Well-being was measured using the Physician Well-Being Index (score ranging from −2 to 9; ≥3 indicating a risk of distress). The median age of respondents was 43 years, and 69.6% were women. Physicians worked an average of 49.2 hours per week, including 11.4 hours devoted to administrative tasks. The main sources of dissatisfaction were time spent on administrative tasks (77.4%), human resources (68.8%), workload (54.1%), and work–life balance (42.9%). More than half of physicians (62.5%) were at risk of distress. Work–life balance was the factor most strongly associated with well-being, followed by a sense of fulfillment in the role of family physician, exposure to unreasonable expectations or verbal abuse from patients, satisfaction with human resources, and lack of awareness of initiatives aimed at improving physician well-being.

These results highlight a poor level of well-being among family physicians and identify priority levers for improving their working conditions, professional satisfaction, and, ultimately, the performance of the health care system.