Exploring occupational fatigue in Illinois pharmacy technicians: Thematic analysis

Patient safety has been prioritized across the nation. However, with growing demand for healthcare services, the well-being of the healthcare workforce has been compromised. In other healthcare professions, occupational fatigue has been explored, yet that of pharmacy technicians has been underrecognized despite their crucial role in pharmacy. This study aims to examine pharmacy technicians' subjective perceptions of occupational fatigue and identify work system components influencing fatigue in Illinois community pharmacy technicians.

This study leverages both quantitative and qualitative methods - a quantitative cross-sectional observational approach and deductive thematic analysis. The Conceptual Framework of Occupational Fatigue and the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety served as a conceptual foundation for this study. A quantitative survey was administered to explore perception of occupational fatigue. Interested participants were invited to semi-structured interviews to provide in-depth insights.

We recruited a total of 27 technicians in Illinois community pharmacies, and of those participants, 16 participated in in-depth interviews. Through thematic analysis, 5 themes were identified: 1) human factors can both mitigate and exacerbate occupational fatigue, 2) breaks can reduce fatigue, but high workload often prevents timely rest, 3) organizational values sometimes conflict technicians' values, 4) supportive infrastructures can ease their physical and mental burdens, and 5) employee quality of work life is closely related to patient outcomes. Survey results were consistent with the findings from the in-depth interviews.

This study used both quantitative survey instruments and qualitative interviews to examine occupational fatigue. The five themes identified can inform the development of targeted interventions to reduce occupational fatigue in Illinois community pharmacy technicians.