Perceptions of well‐being among pharmacy residents and residency program directors

Abstract

Introduction: Decreased well-being in medical careers has resulted in increased burnout, errors, and patient mortality rates. However, while well-being and burnout of providers and medical residents has been studied previously, it is difficult to apply this information to pharmacy residents as the programs are different in time, focus, and requirements. In addition, differences in resident demographics and goals further elucidate difficulties in applying these findings to well-being of pharmacy residents.With residency program directors (RPDs) often having the first and most frequent contact with pharmacy residents, ensuring these individuals better understand resident well-being could facilitate increased well-being and satisfaction, as well as stronger connections to the program itself.Objective: The primary objective was to identify discrepancies between residents and RPDs in the perception of resident well-being. Methods: This was a pilot cohort study. Resident and RPD responses were solicited utilizing Listservs of RPDs in 15 states, as well as platforms such as the North Carolina Association of Pharmacist's Residency Community.Results: Residents reported a statistically significant lower overall well-being, with only 49.1% of respondents reporting a "good" or "great" level of well-being, as compared with 80.1% of RPDs reporting their residents' well-being as "good" or "great" (P < .001). Secondary end points, such as perception of communication, relationships, and emotional health, revealed similar significant results of RPDs' higher perception of resident well-being in comparison with resident responses. Of the 15 secondary end points evaluated, 13 showed residents reporting a lower well-being score compared with the RPDs' perception.Conclusion: There is a large disparity between residents' perception and RPDs' perception of well-being. This disparity should be viewed as an opportunity to foster conversation, improve well-being, and implement change in pharmacy residencies across the country. Further studies could be beneficial in understanding specific, successful initiatives that promote higher well-being scores among pharmacy residents.

Perceived wellness among pharmacy residents during COVID-19

“…Well-being, however, makes up 1 area of wellness, whereas wellness can relate to many different areas in our lives: financial, social, spiritual, physical, and career satisfaction. 1 , 2 Wellness is multidimensional, sometimes spanning 9-12 different domains. It is also known to be a proactive process, preventative in nature, and driven by self-responsibility.…”

“… 7 Many medical and pharmacy trainee programs have implemented well-being programming to assist with increasing their trainees’ resilience. 1 Swanson and Schweiss 8 found that implementing resilience programming into the pharmacy postgraduate year (PGY) 1 training was valuable for 90% of the 28 pharmacy residents surveyed. 8 Whereas there have been studies evaluating the impact of well-being on pharmacists, pharmacy residents, program directors, and student pharmacists, there have yet to be any literature on the impact of a pandemic on pharmacy resident wellness at the time of this submission.…”

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!…”

“…We can recognize symptoms, support colleagues who are struggling, research perceptions, and employ strategies to avoid this outcome, but collectively we need to stop acting as if we are experts on every aspect of this topic. Hammond and colleagues and LeDoux and colleagues both surveyed residents on their perceptions of burnout. While perception is that individual's reality, every answer in the surveys that assessed burnout were subjective in nature.…”

“…While perception is that individual's reality, every answer in the surveys that assessed burnout were subjective in nature. The LeDoux study found differences in perceptions of resident well‐being between program directors and residents . This is not earth‐shattering news that different people will view the same situation differently.…”