Development and implementation of pharmacy department and pharmacy resident well-being programs

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Occupational Health
• Pharmacy Practice

Background:

• Healthcare professional burnout negatively impacts patient care quality.
• Pharmacy employees experience high rates of burnout.
• Formalized pharmacy well-being programs are underrepresented in scientific literature.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement a departmental pharmacy well-being program.
• To establish a focused well-being program for pharmacy residents.
• To identify and address opportunities for improving employee well-being within a pharmacy department.

Main Methods:

• Development of departmental and residency well-being programs in 2020.
• Anonymous surveys distributed to pharmacy employees to gather well-being improvement ideas.
• Feasibility and impact assessment of proposed initiatives by program committees.
• Measurement of pharmacist distress using the Well-Being Index (WBI) at two time points.

Main Results:

• The Well-Being Index (WBI) survey achieved response rates of 49% and 41% in November 2020 and June 2021, respectively.
• A numerical improvement in mean WBI scores was observed from 2.06 to 1.52 (P = 0.09).
• Pharmacy residents exhibited significantly higher distress scores (P = 0.01) but showed a nearly 50% improvement in WBI scores (P = 0.03) between measurements.

Conclusions:

• A system-wide pharmacy well-being program provides a structure for idea collection, initiative implementation, and intervention evaluation.
• The program addressed both individual needs and institutional factors influencing well-being.
• This initiative can serve as a replicable model for other pharmacy departments seeking to enhance well-being.