Brief burnout scale for community pharmacists: Development and psychometric evaluation
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1BENU Pharmacy, PHOENIX Group Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia University Business Academy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Novi Sad, Serbia.
Background:
Burnout among community pharmacists represents a growing occupational health concern due to increasing workload, expanding professional responsibilities, and sustained emotional demands. Existing instruments assess burnout or broader occupational well-being; however, there remains a lack of brief, context-sensitive instruments focused specifically on burnout-related experiences within community pharmacy practice.
Objectives:
This study aimed to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Pharmacists' Burnout Scale (PBS).
Methods:
A multistage instrument development process was applied, including item generation based on literature review, face validity assessment, content validity evaluation by a multidisciplinary expert panel, pilot testing, and psychometric evaluation. Data were collected from licensed community pharmacists in Serbia (N = 716). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to examine the underlying structure of the scale. Internal consistency, convergent validity, and test-retest reliability were assessed. Convergent validity was evaluated using the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Questionnaire (SMBQ).
Results:
Content validity analysis resulted in a 12-item version with excellent content validity (S-CVI/Ave = 0.94). Exploratory factor analysis supported a two-factor structure; however, one item demonstrated substantial cross-loading and was removed, resulting in a final 11-item scale comprising burnout exhaustion and work-related disengagement. The PBS demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α = 0.940). Convergent validity was supported by a significant positive correlation with SMBQ scores (r = 0.601, p < 0.001). Test-retest reliability indicated excellent temporal stability (ICC = 0.981, 95% CI: 0.972-0.986).
Conclusion:
The PBS demonstrated preliminary evidence of reliability and validity as a brief instrument for assessing burnout-related experiences among community pharmacists. The instrument may be useful for research and group-level workforce monitoring in community pharmacy settings. Further studies are needed to confirm its factor structure, measurement invariance, responsiveness, interpretability, and other measurement properties before it can be used for individual screening, risk classification, intervention evaluation, or decision-making purposes.
