Introduction

Dissatisfaction with work amongst community pharmacists has been reported1, 2. Lack of professional fulfilment, isolation from peers and other health care professionals, and lack of challenge have been described as reasons for leaving community pharmacy 2. The objective of this study is to evaluate whether participation in a medicines management project/service has an effect on community pharmacists' job and career satisfaction in order to influence retention of good professionals within community pharmacy.

Methods

Three primary care trusts in East London comprise the study sample. Community pharmacists participating in a medicines management project comprise the experimental group, and non-participating community pharmacists have been recruited to the control group. A postal questionnaire, comprising semi-structured questions on pharmacist demographics and a set of 25 items on job and career satisfaction has been developed. The items have been extracted from an occupational survey on hospital pharmacists' job and career satisfaction 3 and modified to make them more suitable for community pharmacists. The community pharmacists' job and career satisfaction is to be determined three times during the medicines management project in a repeat measures design in order to evaluate whether the pharmacists' opinions have altered. A five point Likert scale codes responses to items.

Results

An initial postal survey was sent to 98 community pharmacists, and 37 active and 33 control pharmacists responded. Constructs were in keeping with previous findings according to coefficient alpha values that showed internal consistency, and construct scores were calculated. No statistically significant differences were found between active and control pharmacists' job or career satisfaction, satisfaction with duties or perceived autonomy at job at baseline. Women expressed more satisfaction with their duties than men (t-test 2.266, p = 0.027), and pharmacists who had additional appointments were more satisfied with their duties than pharmacists who did not have any such appointments (t-test -2.837, p = 0.006).

Discussion

Baseline measures in this medicines management study show that the active and control community pharmacists' job and career satisfactions did not differ; any future changes can be correlated with the participation in a medicines management service. Having an additional appointment brings diversity to community pharmacists' duties which might help to retain them in community pharmacy. Women were more satisfied with their duties than men were, do they aspire for less than men or do make the most of what they have?

References

1. Boardman H, Blenkinsopp A, Jesson J, et al. Understanding satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the pharmacy workforce: findings from the West Midlands Project. Pharm J 1999; 263: R4.

2. Tweddell S J and Wright D J. Determining why community pharmacists choose to leave community pharmacy. Pharm J 2000; 265: R44.

3. Rajah T, Bates I, Davies JG, et al. An occupational survey of hospital pharmacists in the South of England. Pharm J 2001; 266: 723 - 726.