Majority of pharmacists need support managing stress at work, survey finds

The majority of respondents to a Pharmacist Support survey have expressed concern about managing stress at work and their work–life balance, mental health and general wellbeing.

Danielle Hunt

More than 60% of pharmacists need support with stress at work, a survey carried out by the charity Pharmacist Support has revealed.

The online survey was conducted in May 2019 to help support the development of the charity’s five-year strategy, and was complemented by a series of in-depth interviews.

Of the 500 individuals who responded to the survey, representing all areas of pharmacy and career stages, 61% of pharmacist respondents said they needed support with stress at work and 59% said they needed support with their work–life balance. Almost 50% said they needed support with managing their wellbeing.

According to the survey, community pharmacy was the most concerned sector when it came to general wellbeing, with 78% of community pharmacist respondents identifying mental health as one of their “key issues”.

More than 80% of all respondents identified the impact of the funding cuts on the sector as a “core challenge” facing the pharmacy profession — this figure rose to 97% when only responses from community pharmacists were considered.

Inadequate staffing was identified as a challenge by 83% of all respondents.

“Given the nature of these findings that have highlighted some major concerns around stress and wellbeing, we have decided to launch them publicly to help raise awareness in the sector and to support the activities of many of our partners working with pharmacists,” said Danielle Hunt, chief executive of Pharmacist Support.

“92% of our survey respondents agreed that more needs to be done to raise awareness of issues facing the pharmacy profession, and that Pharmacist Support should be one of the organisations helping to do this.”

Last updated
Citation
The Pharmaceutical Journal, PJ, September 2019, Vol 303, No 7929;303(7929):DOI:10.1211/PJ.2019.20207044

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