Nearly 9 in 10 Health-System Pharmacists Face High Risk for Burnout

Health-system pharmacists had a higher risk of burnout during the pandemic, leading researchers to recommend pharmacy leadership invest in burnout reduction strategies. Investigators published their findings in the Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.

“Contributing factors to health professional burnout include working in a high-stakes environment, inefficient work processes (such as cumbersome documentation requirements), high workload, poor work-life balance, and staffing inadequacy,” researchers said. “Although burnout among pharmacists has been an increasing research interest in the past decade, little is still known about the full scope of pharmacist burnout.”

Health-system pharmacists received an electronic survey that measured participant demographics, burnout contributors and mitigation strategies, and changes in experience due to COVID-19. Burnout risk was evaluated using the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory and the Maslach Burnout Inventory.

Included in the study were 113 pharmacists working at 2 academic health systems in Chicago, Illinois. Nearly 9 in 10 (87.6%) health-system pharmacists met the study criteria for experiencing burnout. Investigators also found burnout rates were similar between ambulatory and nonambulatory pharmacists, at 88.4% and 87.1%, respectively.

Pharmacists commonly attributed burnout to staffing and scheduling issues, precepting requirements, and patient needs. Additionally, 78.2% of health-system pharmacists responded they experienced more burnout due to the pandemic.

“This study highlights that the pharmacist workforce, like other health professions, is strained to an alarming level,” researchers said.

The most common strategies pharmacists used to cope with burnout were spending time with family/friends, sleep, exercise, and recreational or relaxation activities. However, individual coping mechanisms, while important for promoting health and well-being, are not effective enough to mitigate work-related burnout because they do not address the main causes of burnout, study authors said.

“These results should serve as a call to action for pharmacy leadership to address and mitigate burnout and burnout risk among [health-system pharmacists]… Efforts to reduce burnout must come from an organizational level,” investigators concluded.

Reference:
McQuade BM, Keller E, Elmes A, DiDomenico RJ, Jarrett JB. Stratification of burnout in health-system pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic: A focus on the ambulatory care pharmacist. J Am Coll Clin Pharm. Published online July 3, 2022. doi:10.1002/jac5.1672