Olivia C. Welter, PharmD
Despite pharmacy professionals having more clinical education and opportunities for specialization than ever before, job satisfaction for pharmacists remains low.
Over the years, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) has published several iterations of a white paper describing what motivates pharmacists in their jobs, challenges in achieving success at work, and how opportunities for professional rewards and advancement can be beneficial. The first paper was published in 1995, followed by an update in 2010. The latest edition, titled “Rewards, recognition, and advancement for clinical pharmacists,” was published in the Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (JACCP) in March 2023.
What do pharmacists need to improve job satisfaction?
Survey results revealed which factors were most important for pharmacists in their careers. Categories included financial incentives, personal/professional commitment changes, professional advancement, workplace improvement, and employee appreciation.
Pharmacists ranked financial incentives as their preferred workplace reward with 51% of respondents selecting this option. Financial incentives include raises, bonuses, travel funding, and reimbursement for credentials/certifications.
The next-highest preferred reward was personal/professional commitment changes. This category encompassed shift scheduling, autonomy, work flexibility, work-life balance, and staffing support.
While the lowest-ranked reward category was employee appreciation, over 70% of respondents said that some type of recognition by their employer was important to them. Pharmacists preferred public recognition over private recognition.
Contrary to the strong desire of pharmacists to receive financial rewards, only 22% and 20% of respondents said that raises and bonuses are available to them, respectively. Pharmacists also revealed that shift scheduling based on employee preference and additional staffing were lacking at their institutions. Alarmingly, just 17% of respondents said that their employer is committed to work-life balance.
White paper background
The paper was written using data from a web-based survey conducted by ACCP and distributed to ACCP members in March 2022. Primary target participants for the survey included hospital, health-system, and community pharmacists as well as faculty at colleges/schools of pharmacy who had a clinical practice site. The format of survey questions varied, with some using 5-point Likert scales, some requesting ranking of options, some with multiple choices to select from, and opportunities for written responses.
Five hundred and seventy-one pharmacists submitted responses to the survey. Most respondents were 35–49 years old and had been in practice for 5–15 years. Nearly 99% of respondents had completed postgraduate training or held a professional certification of some kind, including 74% who completed PGY-1 residency training, 49% who completed PGY-2 residency training, and 87% who obtained board certification.
Pharmacists who worked at academic medical centers were most well represented in terms of practice setting for participants, followed by Veterans Affairs hospitals, community teaching and non-teaching hospitals, and ambulatory care settings. There were only four respondents who identified as community pharmacists.
ACCP recommendations for rewards, recognition, and advancement
The ACCP Clinical Practice Affairs Committee offered recommendations to health systems and pharmacy administrators for rewards, recognition, and advancement for pharmacists beginning with encouraging employers to evaluate their current systems and where there could be areas for improvement. Other recommendations included:
- Prioritizing financial incentives for advanced credential maintenance
- Improving shift scheduling to correlate with employee preferences
- Increasing pharmacist autonomy
- Increasing public/peer recognition of employees, including equity of recognition among pharmacists within the department and between various professions of the institution
- Implementing clear career ladders or personalized professional recognition programs, including separate ladders for clinical and managerial advancement
Professional burnout and well-being
The information highlighted in this white paper helps to explain how employers can improve pharmacists’ pride in their career and satisfaction with their positions.
While the survey didn’t expressly address pharmacist burnout and well-being, the authors did note in their discussion that potential for burnout and job dissatisfaction will continue to persist if employers do not address pharmacists’ needs.
Pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and student pharmacists can track their well-being using the APhA Well-Being Index for Pharmacy Personnel available at apha.us/APhAWBI to learn more. ■