Abstract
Objective: To examine the impact of COVID-19 on work and personal wellbeing from the perspective of pharmacists practicing in community pharmacies in Nebraska.
Methods: An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used. The first phase was quantitative data collection and analysis of a survey sent electronically to pharmacists working in the state of Nebraska. The survey was a hybrid of researcher-developed items to meet study needs and the validated Abbreviated Maslach Burnout Inventory (aMBI). The subsequent qualitative phase was conducted to follow up and help explain the quantitative findings. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 27.
Results: The response rate to the survey was 12.3% (n=339). Mean age of the respondents was 44.8 years with an average of 18.7 years in practice. The majority were female (n=139, 62.3%) and White (n=205, 91.9%). Most respondents (n=113, 50.7%) practiced in a community pharmacy followed by hospital (n=72, 32.3). Almost 45% of respondents reported they considered leaving their current employer during the pandemic and more than 37% reported they considered leaving the profession of pharmacy. When asked how the pandemic impacted their pharmacy, 80.7% of respondents cited “Staffing shortage” as one of the largest contributing factors impacting their work environment. The average burnout score on the aMBI was 13.4 (moderate burnout) for the Personal Accomplishment construct, 5.55 (moderate burnout) for the Depersonalization construct, and 10.91 (moderate to high burnout) for the Emotional Exhaustion construct. Chi-square analysis confirmed that community pharmacists are more burned out than non-community pharmacists. For the qualitative phase, semi structured interviews of 20-30 minutes duration were conducted with 4 pharmacists. Major themes were “asked to do more with less support”, “pharmacist did not get the credit they deserve”, and “negative impact on physical and mental health.”
Conclusions: Pharmacists across multiple practice settings faced workplace issues during the pandemic which impacted their mental and physical health. Resources to support pharmacist wellbeing and prevent burnout need to be provided by employers and pharmacy professional organizations. Future research should examine which of these resources or combination of resources is most impactful