Well-Being
Loren Bonner
Workplace conditions, including lack of staffing, limited support staff, inadequate training time, and an increase in demand to “do more with less,” continue to be primary reasons for stress and burnout among pharmacists cited in recent reports submitted to the Pharmacy Workplace and Well-being Reporting (PWWR) portal.
The portal, launched in October 2021 and developed jointly by APhA and the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations (NASPA), is a confidential and anonymous way pharmacy personnel can report positive and negative experiences in pharmacy practice as well as suggest solutions.
In early June 2024, APhA and NASPA released the ninth analysis of PWWR data.
“This cycle’s findings are similar to the reported experiences with the previous eight cycles,” said Brigid K. Groves, PharmD, APhA’s vice president of professional affairs, in a news release. “Reports this cycle included a new theme of outdated software and broken hardware computer systems in the pharmacy that have led to near miss errors, which are those that were corrected prior to reaching the patient. This learning is a call for a systematic review of all pharmacy prescription processing software and hardware to address and resolve needed updates and replacements.”
The negative reported experiences in the latest cycle included many of the same stories of threatening and abusive behavior described in detail in the previous analyses. In the past, the experiences in the negative reports gave highly personal accounts of the difficulties in working in community pharmacy practice specifically.
Just culture
For the first quarter of 2024, 122 reports came through PWWR and some were positive. One positive experience touched on a just culture approach to patient care in the pharmacy.
In a just culture, there is a shared accountability between the organization and front-line employees. According to Shelly Nance, PharmD, a patient safety leader at Kroger Health, the just culture method of shared accountability focuses on how an error happened and less on who was involved.
“A just culture in pharmacy means every error is viewed as a learning opportunity and all employees are comfortable reporting and speaking freely about errors without fear of punishment,” said Nance. “It is investigating how we can change the system to prevent error recurrence as opposed to simply disciplining the people involved.”
In practice, this may look like every pharmacy employee feeling comfortable enough to speak up when they feel something is unsafe.
Several organizations, including APhA, ASHP, ISMP, NABP, and The Joint Commission, among others, recommend adopting a just culture approach as a way to improve patient safety, said Nance.
As in past cycles, those who submitted positive experiences in PWWR indicated that their experiences would have a beneficial long-term effect on their well-being.
Harassment is real and pervasive
Coworkers and managers are the primary sources of reported workplace harassment—verbal, emotional, and sexual, according to some of the latest reports in PWWR.
As have been the findings since the launch of PWWR, females were the target of 78% of the discrimination and microaggression incidents; 66% of the sexual harassment incidents; and 80% of the verbal or emotional harassment or bullying incidents reported. However, a difference in these reports of discrimination, harassment, and aggression was that staff are now taking legal action.
In the full report, the authors advised pharmacies to put in place a zero-tolerance policy that addresses aggressive and abusive behavior. Pharmacy staff should also review and be reminded of procedures to report and address harassment in the workplace. ■
Some resources available to recognize signs of workplace harassment and what to do