Pharmacy workforce : trend analysis

Abstract

It is predicted that worldwide, pharmaceutical workforce capacity is challenged to meet requirements of healthcare systems. Furthermore, it is predicted that worldwide, pharmaceutical workforce capacity is challenged to meet the requirements of healthcare systems. Moreover, the shortage in the pharmacy workforce has left a negative impact on the profession and on the public, which includes job-related stress, long working hours, inflexibility in job timings, low job satisfaction, and limited time for counselling the patients and educating them regarding their health issues. In addition, understanding the pharmacy profession, pharmacy workforce role, current trends in the pharmacy workforce the issues faced by the workforce and the implications of these trends contribute to strategic planning to support future evolvements. The aims of the study are to describe present pharmacist workforce and to analyse the trends in pharmacist workforce. A self-administered questionnaire was developed and validated by a panel of six pharmacists from different areas of practice (community, hospital, industrial, regulatory, academia, medical representation. Following ethics approval, the questionnaire was disseminated to all registered pharmacists through the Maltese Pharmacy Council and social media. The questionnaire comprises 15 questions. Topics included are: years and areas of practice, job satisfaction, continuity of practice, reasons for selecting pharmacy profession, continuing professional development, and further studies. Through this study it has been concluded that, the greater part of pharmacists still has a preference to work in the community setting (N=102, 28.7%). Clinical / hospital pharmacy ranks as the second most popular occupation among pharmacists with 20.8%. Whereas, Regulatory Science is the third most preferred area of practice with 17.8% of pharmacists followed by Industry, Academia and Medical Representations. Most of the respondents are fully employed with 79.4% and 17.6% as part-time employees. Out of 102 respondents 24.5% were having the experience between 11-15 years, followed by 16.7% between 6-10 years. More than half of the respondents with the percentage of 52.9% were satisfied practicing as a pharmacist and 26.7% were highly satisfied and few with 15.7% were neither satisfied or dissatisfied.