April Shaughnessy, BSPharm, CAE, is the APhA Well-being Initiative project manager in Washington, DC.
Well-being is a term you hear a lot. You probably understand what it means in your personal life, but do you want to apply the principles of well-being in your academic and work life? Two ways to accomplish this are to examine your stress level and have your workplace concerns and suggestions heard.
Why is it important to assess your stress level?
The Pharmacist Well-being Index (WBI) is a research-validated online tool invented by Mayo Clinic researchers that measures dimensions of distress and well-being. It uses 9 short questions to help you understand which of these dimensions are affecting you. You can learn which aspects need your attention, and where you stand compared to the more than 7,500 pharmacy personnel assessors. You can also track your progress over time by retaking the assessment.
What do aggregate scores tell the profession? Researchers at Mayo conducted a validation study of WBI for pharmacy personnel and determined that assessors who are at high risk for distress are also at a high risk for the following consequences:1
- 3-fold higher risk of low quality of life
- 8-fold higher risk of burnout
- 2.5-fold higher risk of high fatigue
- 2.5-fold higher risk of intent to leave their current job
And, most importantly,
- 2-fold higher risk of medication error
The tool is 100% anonymous and confidential; no one will receive or be able to view individual assessors’ responses. It is free, and APhA membership is not required. It takes less than 5 minutes to sign up and assess. Access the WBI at app.mywellbeingindex.org/signup (Invitation Code: APhA).
WBI users are at high risk of distress. Are there differences in the distress percentage for student pharmacists versus pharmacists? Yes! Student pharmacists’ distress percent is lower than that of a pharmacist.
Your voice has power!
Pharmacists and student pharmacists have told APhA that trying to talk about changes to enhance working conditions and patient care not only falls on deaf ears, but oftentimes is met with retribution. Experts have noted that one tenet of occupational burnout comes from the feeling that you are not being heard or your opinions are not welcome.2
To address this and provide a way to give pharmacy personnel a voice, APhA and National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations (NASPA) have launched Pharmacy Workplace and Well-being Reporting (PWWR).
When you submit your confidential and anonymous report to PWWR, it will be collected and analyzed by the Alliance for Patient Medication Safety (APMS), a recognized and listed Patient Safety Organization (PSO); this extends the strong confidentiality and privilege protections of the federal Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 to your individual report. Your individual report and data will not be released; only aggregated, non-identifiable data from all reports will be made available to qualified researchers for education purposes, and the development of best practices and recommendations to enhance the pharmacy workplace. A PSO’s confidentiality protections provide a way to give voice and amplification to your concerns and suggested solutions while simultaneously mitigating any fear of employer retribution.
Your deidentified PWWR report, aggregated with others, will create a pool of data that will be used to influence and educate our pharmacy community and its leaders on meaningful and actionable changes. The positive and negative experiences and situations you and your colleagues provide via PWWR reports will help to tell a collective, powerful story that can spark change and inspire improvements in well-being and patient safety.
Learn more about PWWR at www.pharmacist.com/pwwr. Do you have a well-being tip or story to share? Send it to APhA at wellbeing@aphanet.org. Remember, your well-being is everything!
References
- Skrupky LP, West CP, Shanafelt T, et al. Ability of the Well-Being Index to identify pharmacists in distress. JAPhA. 2020;60(6):906–14.
- APhA, NASPA. National state-based pharmacy workplace survey: Report of initial findings. www.pharmacist.com/DNNGlobalStorageRedirector.ashx?egsfid=Zofb6PIvYhs%3d