Understand the factors contributing to pharmacist burnout
The pharmacist’s role is shifting, with pharmacists stepping in to fill care gaps and taking on increased responsibilities as critical members of patient care teams. Additionally, as Dr. German pointed out during the webinar, “In the healthcare setting, pharmacists have experiences similar to nurses and physicians: Excessive nonclinical duties and a lot of administrative tasks that we were really not trained to deal with.”
Factors such as staffing shortages, increased workloads, and the rising cost of drugs drive pharmacist burnout, particularly in retail settings, introducing challenges in creating future-ready pharmacies. Though these issues frequently arise in conversations about pharmacy burnout, Dr. German highlighted contributing factors that aren’t usually considered, including:
- Loss of pharmacist autonomy
- Mismatched key performance indicators
- Increased moral fatigue and moral distress
During the webinar, Dr. German stated, “Drug shortages and allocation of life-saving medications to patients is something that can lead to a lot of moral fatigue and moral distress... So I think that on par with nurses and physicians, there are increasing demands on pharmacists that are pulling them away from the clinical duties that they were trained to do.”
