Why do Australian registered pharmacists leave the profession? a qualitative study

Abstract

These findings provide insights to the pharmacy sector, previously unexplored in Australia, and informs future pharmacist workforce planning. To retain experienced, mid-career pharmacists in the profession, strategies to increase opportunities for career progression, better use of pharmacists' knowledge and skills and involvement in patient care are required to increase job satisfaction and improve retention rates.

Assessment of job satisfaction among hospital pharmacists in Saudi Arabia

“…Some studies explored the reasons why pharmacists tend to quit their jobs. In Australia, lack of career paths and opportunities, underutilization of pharmacists' knowledge and skills, and the desire for change are among the most common factors that lead to dissatisfaction [12].…”

“…Additionally, bad perception of the management and administration by employee pharmacists in both hospital and community settings resulted in increased levels of job dissatisfaction and may lead to increasing the rate of job turnover [14]. Pharmacists' knowledge about the job, number of clinical services performed, and the actual amount of time spent by the pharmacist providing these activities are other important factors that increase the level of job satisfaction among hospital pharmacists [12,15]. Autonomy was named as one of the most common causes besides workload, work control, and management style for stressors that may lead to job dissatisfaction [13].…”

Atrial fibrillation screening in pharmacies using an iPhone ECG: a qualitative review of implementation

“…There are many drivers for Australian pharmacists to offer clinical community services including a shift towards more patient-centred service delivery [17], incentivised payments for professional services from government-subsidised agreements [18], desire to distinguish community pharmacies from supermarkets and other market competition [17], and increased job satisfaction from an increased clinical role [19][20][21]. Understanding the pharmacists' experience of the AF screening program and their attitudes to providing screening in addition to their core business is important to future sustainability.…”

Pharmacy Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism: A Review of the Literature

“…In the words of a female pharmacist from Australia, formerly working in a community pharmacy and currently having a PhD in a non-health discipline: "I think within community pharmacy… it was very profit motivated rather than, service orientated… the job was quite isolating professionally…Very much the focus of the owner was on profit motivation rather than on, you know excellence in professional service. So very much you spend your time, obviously to please your boss" [60]. Such feelings seem not to be particular for this pharmacist, "the absence of a professional environment to work in and the challenges they face in a profit-motivated profession" being described in this study based on interviews with former pharmacists that left the profession as a "recurring topic.…”

“…Latif [44] reported in a questionnaire-based study that workload seem not to reduce the quality of patient care and clinical decision-making, but this study had a number of limitations, including the potential use of a workload measurement not sensitive enough, a relatively low response rate and a sample of pharmacists from a single city. Business interests may lead to "unreasonable working conditions," with a high volume of work, long working hours and no breaks, which not only are a source of frustration for the employed pharmacists [60] but also have been shown to increase the risk of errors and ethical transgressions [26]. In Australia, dissatisfied pharmacists who gave up practicing in the community setting described the working conditions and atmosphere as "unreasonable" and more similar to a factory than a professional environment, whereas in Romania, for instance, there is a widespread practice of having pharmacists working two full weekends every month, which means that a pharmacist has a full work-break only after 12 days.…”