Addressing burnout in clinical pharmacy: What can we learn from other health care disciplines?

Abstract

Burnout is a growing concern across health care disciplines. Burnout is a prolonged response to persistent work-related stressors and includes elements of exhaustion, depersonalization, and perceived ineffectiveness. The body of literature exploring the causes and consequences of burnout has grown substantially. Rates of burnout in clinical pharmacists are similar to those reported for other health care professionals.However, many aspects of burnout have not been adequately characterized in clinical pharmacists. This manuscript outlines key findings from the literature on burnout in other health care disciplines and establishes relevant connections to clinical pharmacy. Burnout has negative consequences related to personal well-being and is linked to stress-related health outcomes. Burnout is associated with increased job turnover, decreased productivity, and quality concerns, including both patient safety and satisfaction. A variety of factors contribute to the development of burnout, including provider characteristics, practice specialization, type and quantity of work expectations, work environment, social and organizational support, and reward. Interventions that focus on individual providers have been shown to modestly improve burnout. Interventions that emphasize organizational change may have a more significant impact, and several groups have outlined organization-focused strategies to improve well-being in the workplace. Such strategies include enhancing communication, promoting true collaboration and community, addressing staffing shortages, empowering employee decision-making, and developing and promoting institutional values. Best practices for improving well-being within an organization include a multidisciplinary, multimodal approach that is supported by both resources and leadership engagement. K E Y W O R D S job satisfaction, occupational stress, pharmacists/psychology, professional burnout

Combating pharmacist burnout: A model for critical care clinical pharmacy faculty

“…Risk factors associated with the development of burnout are numerous and well‐described (Table ) . Importantly, some of the risk factors for burnout are not necessarily modifiable, while others can potentially be changed.…”

“…Importantly, the limited literature that is available suggests that burnout is just as prevalent, if not more prevalent, in pharmacy as that of other disciplines . One recent study conducted in the United States found that 53.2% of 329 primarily university health‐system‐based clinical pharmacists demonstrated some aspects of burnout . In another larger study assessing burnout among university‐ and community‐based hospital pharmacists, 61.2% of the 974 survey responders had evidence of burnout .…”

Burnout, burnout, burnout is burning me out

“…A Google search yields more than 1.6 million results after typing clinical pharmacist burnout and 11.2 million hits display when the search is expanded to burnout in the medical field. In this edition of JACCP alone, four articles focus on the topic of burnout . Burnout is everywhere!…”

“…In fact, true burnout syndrome has been around for a long time and there are subgroups of individuals that are at an increased risk of burning out. Between Haase and McQuade and colleagues, both have accurately reviewed available literature and described contributing factors, perceptions, prevalence, and the ultimate impacts of burnout. McQuade and colleagues also acknowledged large heterogeneity in available data .…”

“…Haase spoke about how there is a lack of evidence‐based solutions to burnout . However, she does articulate how organizations can improve well‐being.…”