In this episode, I’ll discuss the association between number of learners trained per year and rates of burnout among inpatient pharmacists.
Burnout is defined as a work-related stress syndrome resulting from chronic exposure to job stress that consists of 3 dimensions: emotional exhaustion, cynicism and depersonalization, and reduced professional efficacy and personal accomplishment. While burnout can occur in any profession, it is increasingly the subject of study in healthcare professionals, including pharmacists.
One particular source of workload that has been under-studied as a contributor to pharmacist burnout is the “educational workload” brought about by precepting students and residents or training new employees. A group of authors sought to add to the knowledge available on this topic and conducted and published a validated survey to measure burnout and professional fulfillment within a university health system’s pharmacy service.
The survey was given to 224 pharmacists and 224 pharmacy technicians. The majority of survey participants worked in ambulatory care, with about one-fourth working an inpatient role and one-seventh working an infrastructure role.
Participants were asked to complete both a single-item burnout assessment and a 10-item burnout assessment. For purposes of the survey training a learner counted as training either a pharmacy student, pharmacy resident, or a new employee. Inpatient pharmacists who trained 4 or more learners per year had statistically significantly higher rates of burnout compared to those who trained fewer learners. Scores for inpatient pharmacists who trained 4 or more learners vs those who trained fewer were 64% vs 31% on the single-item burnout assessment and 55% vs 14% on the 10-item burnout assessment.
An association between number of learners and rates of burnout was not found for pharmacists working in ambulatory care or infrastructure roles, or in pharmacy technicians.
The authors concluded:
Added precepting and training responsibilities may be associated with higher levels of burnout among inpatient pharmacy team members, particularly pharmacists. Both academic and practice institutions should consider monitoring of training loads when considering staff members’ assignments for trainees.
While this is only a single health-system that has been surveyed, inpatient pharmacists who precept students and residents would likely agree that taking on this responsibility adds to the daily workload and when taken to an extreme would have the potential to contribute to burnout. The journal editors added the following 3 key points to take away from the article:
1. Both technician and pharmacist team members should be evaluated for burnout relative to the number of student and employee trainees per year.
2. Especially among inpatient pharmacists, precepting and training responsibilities may be associated with higher levels of burnout.
3. Precepting and training systems should be evaluated based on learner load per pharmacy team member over a defined period of time.
Members of my Hospital Pharmacy Academy have access to trainings on practical interventions to deal with pharmacist burnout, as well as trainings and tools that can ease the workload that comes with training pharmacy learners. These are in addition to hundreds of other resources to help in your practice. The Hospital Pharmacy Academy is my online membership site that teaches pharmacists practical critical care and hospital pharmacy skills you can apply at the bedside so that you can become confident in your ability to save lives and improve patient outcomes. To get immediate access, go to pharmacyjoe.com/academy.
If you like this post, check out my book – A Pharmacist’s Guide to Inpatient Medical Emergencies: How to respond to code blue, rapid response calls, and other medical emergencies.
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