9 minute read
Peer Review
The Impact of Phar macist Involve ment in Professional Associations and Career Satisfaction
Katlynn Johnson, Jaycee Mandernach, Andrew Sabers, & Sarah Tappe of the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy John Swegle, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP
Abstract Background: Professional association involvement can be an integral part of a pharmacist’s career. However, not all pharmacists choose to be a part of these organizations. Professional association involvement and its impact on career satisfaction was evaluated. The primary outcome assessed how the number of associations and time involved with these associations impacted pharmacist’s career satisfaction. Secondary outcomes included assessments on the impact duration of pharmacy practice and practice type (i.e. community, hospital, etc.) have on career satisfaction.
Methods: A Google forms survey was sent to Iowa Pharmacy Association (IPA) members via email two different times. There were 22 questions on this survey assessing various questions involving demographics, workplace information, involvement in organizations, and overall satisfaction. Questions about satisfaction included a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being highly unsatisfied and 5 being highly satisfied. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the survey data.
Results: Twenty-eight pharmacists responded to the survey. Iowa pharmacists had a high level of satisfaction overall. A majority of pharmacists (89.3%) reported they were either highly satisfied or satisfied with their career. Only 3.6% reported that they were unsatisfied with their career. Satisfaction ratings remained similar across practice location (Avg. satisfaction rating; community: 3.71, ambulatory: 4.71, hospital: 4.67). Increased involvement (hours/month) showed no clear impact on satisfaction (0 hours: 4.75, 1-2 hours: 4.29, 3-4 hours: 5.0, ≥ 5 hours: 4.8). There was a trend toward increased satisfaction with the greater number of associations a participant was involved in (1-2 associations: 4.29, 3-4 associations: 4.55, ≥ 5 associations: 5.0).
Conclusions: Pharmacists involved in more professional associations showed a trend of being more satisfied with their careers compared to pharmacists involved in fewer professional organizations.
Introduction In 2019, USA Today’s “Best Jobs” ranked pharmacist as #55. 1 In 2017, pharmacist ranked as the second most promising profession, according to LinkedIn. 2 Additionally, a recent Pharmacy Times survey found that only 51% of respondents were satisfied with their job. The top three reasons for dissatisfaction were workload, management, and the work-life balance. 2 The top three drivers of satisfaction being pride in what they do, compensation, and colleagues. 2 One potential option to boost career satisfaction is to be involved in one of the numerous professional associations. Professional association involvement can be a rewarding part of a pharmacist’s career, however, not all pharmacists are a part of these organizations. If pharmacists that are involved in a professional association are more satisfied in their career, this could provide useful information to promote professional engagement and aid in career satisfaction. Timothy Gauthier has hypothesized some variables that limit pharmacist involvement as their career progresses. Such variables include diminishing benefit, increasing personal and family activities, and the cost to be a member in the association. 4
The primary objective assessed how the number of professional associations a pharmacist is involved in impacts their career satisfaction. Secondary objectives assessed the impact of the duration and location of pharmacy practice on career satisfaction. It was hypothesized that increased involvement in professional associations would result in higher career satisfaction.
Methods Pharmacists were surveyed in the state of Iowa. Those pharmacists were contacted through use of the Iowa Pharmacy Association’s (IPA) weekly “Top 5” e-mail. The survey (table 1) was e-mailed out twice using IPA’s mailing list. This e-mail was sent out once in January 2019 and once in February 2019. The survey was administered through a Google forms survey. There were 22 questions that were asked in the survey involving demographics, workplace information, involvement in organizations, and overall satisfaction. The demographics section included questions about gender, age, duration of practice, and degree type. The workplace information section included questions about practice location and the number of hours per week a pharmacist spent working. The involvement in organizations section included questions about the number of professional associations a pharmacist was involved in, type of association involvement, time dedicated to associations (hours per month), and reason for association participation. The satisfaction section utilized a 5-point Likert scale with 1 being highly unsatisfied, 2 being unsatisfied, 3 being neutral, 4 being satisfied, and 5 being highly satisfied. The questions included were about clinical service satisfaction, clinical skills enhancement, patient interaction opportunities, health care professional interactions, coworker or management interactions, motivation, benefits and/or salary, satisfaction with the future direction of pharmacy, and overall satisfaction. After the survey was sent out twice, the data was compiled and assessed using descriptive statistics.
Results The survey had 28 respondents. Participant demographics and characteristics are described in table 2. Overall, career satisfaction was higher among pharmacists surveyed than the national average of 51%. 2 Of the pharmacists that were surveyed, 60.7% reported they are highly satisfied with their career, 28.6% reported they are satisfied, 7.1% reported that they are neutral, and 3.6% reported that they are unsatisfied with their career. The hours of association involvement and satisfaction are described in figure 1. Pharmacists with 3-4 hours of professional association involvement per month reported the highest level of satisfaction with an average satisfaction rating of 5.0 on a 5-point scale. Those with 5 or more hours of association involvement were the next highest with an average satisfaction rating of 4.8, followed by pharmacists with 0 hours of involvement with an average satisfaction rating of 4.75. The least satisfied group was that with 1-2 hours of association involvement with an average satisfaction rating of 4.13.
Involvement in a greater number of associations displayed a trend of increased career satisfaction as shown in figure 2. Pharmacists involved in 5 or more associations had the greatest average satisfaction rating of 5.0 followed by pharmacists involved in 3-4 associations with an average rating of 4.55. The lowest rating came from those involved in 1-2 associations with an average rating of 4.29.
There were some variations in satisfaction looking at different practice locations. Ambulatory care pharmacists reported the highest level of satisfaction at 4.71. This was followed very closely by hospital pharmacist with a satisfaction rating of 4.67. The greatest difference was seen amongst community pharmacists who reported the lowest average satisfaction rating at 3.71.
Career satisfaction increased with increasing duration of pharmacy practice. Those with 20 or more years of practice had the highest average career satisfaction rating at 4.67. Pharmacists with 11-20 years of practice reported a satisfaction rating of 4.38. Those with 6-10 years of practice had the lowest rating at 4.0.
Most pharmacists joined an association as an opportunity to give back (39.3%). Other common reasons were networking opportunities (32.1%) and clinical skills development (21.4%). Another less common reason for participation in an association was to shape the future of pharmacy (3.6%).
Discussion The average satisfaction rating gathered from this survey was above the national average. This was likely due to survey participants being Iowa pharmacists. The state of Iowa has developed a strong pharmacy reputation nationally. Drug Topics ranked Iowa in the top 5 states to be a pharmacist
in 2019. 5 Additionally, the use of IPA’s mailing list introduced bias as all respondents were a part of at least one organization which could have resulted in the higher satisfaction ratings.
Being involved in a greater number of professional associations was linked to greater career satisfaction. The greatest amount of satisfaction was seen at 3-4 hours of association involvement per month. There is a difference in the reported satisfaction of pharmacist’s involvement in a professional organization of 0 hours (4.75) versus pharmacist’s involvement of 1-2 hours (4.13). This is a 13.1% decrease in their satisfaction from 0 to 1-2 hours spent. However, the low response rate of 4 and 15 participants spending 0 and 1-2 hours respectively may explain this finding. Additionally, the type of involvement was not specified. There cannot be a direct link stating more time spent means more satisfaction in one’s career. There is most likely a threshold to what this value is and needs to be further studied. Based off the results from this study, there is a possibility of a “sweet spot” of involvement. This amount of time could have many variables to it and could be a different number of hours spent based on personal characteristics previously discussed such as stable employment, personal activities, and the cost of the association.
Within practice sites, ambulatory care and hospital care pharmacists were more satisfied than community pharmacists. The next step is to investigate why these practice sites differed in their career satisfaction as many variables are at stake. With increasing years of pharmacy practice, there was a trend of increasing satisfaction as the highest satisfaction was with 20+ years of experience. The greater satisfaction among the more experienced pharmacists could stem from more comfortability in their job. However, this is only speculation as the reasoning behind this difference was not addressed in the survey.
Pharmacists in the survey had varying reasons as to why they wanted to be involved in a professional association with the most highly ranked reason being that they wanted to give back. It could be reasonable to think that a satisfied pharmacist in their career would want to spend more time with their career involvement whereas an unsatisfied pharmacist would not want to spend extra time related to their profession. This study has numerous limitations. The use of IPA’s mailing list is limited to Iowa pharmacists and prevents comparison to a control group. Additionally, the survey had a poor response rate with only 28 respondents. Due to these limitations, any relationship between organization involvement and career satisfaction were not able to be investigated. Although this study does not have any immediate implications, it can serve as a foundation for future research in to the relationship between organization involvement and career satisfaction.
Conclusions Iowa pharmacists involved in more professional associations showed a trend of being more satisfied with their careers compared to pharmacists involved in fewer professional organizations. The longer a pharmacist has been in practice showed a trend of more satisfaction in their career. Hospital and ambulatory care pharmacists have relatively similar levels of satisfaction in their career while community pharmacist have slightly less satisfaction. Further research needs to be completed to assess pharmacist satisfaction at a national level. Input from pharmacists that are not involved in professional organizations also needs to be assessed in order to further determine the relationship between organization involvement and career satisfaction.
Acknowledgements Iowa Pharmacy Association (IPA) for allowing the investigators to distribute the survey.
Contact IPA for a copy of the complete survey used.
References: 1. “Pharmacist Ranks Among Best Jobs of 2019.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, money.usnews.com/careers/bestjobs/pharmacist. 2. “Pharmacists Rank Among Most Promising Professions of 2017.” Pharmacy Times, 24 Jan. 2017. https://www.pharmacytimes.com/ news/pharmacists-rank-among-most-promising-professionsof-2017. 3. Mollison, Caitlin. “Pharmacists Are Happy With Their Salaries, Less So With Their Jobs, Survey Shows.” Pharmacy Times, 12 Jan. 2019. 4. “Is It Worth Price Of Membership To Be In Pharmacy Organizations As A Pharmacist?” IDStewardship, 6 Dec. 2018, www.idstewardship.com/ worth-price-membership-pharmacy-organizations-pharmacist/. 5. Hamm, Nicholas “Top 10 Best States to Be a Pharmacist in 2019.” Drug Topics, 17 Oct. 2019. https://www.drugtopics.com/salary/top-10-beststates-be-pharmacist-2019.
Figure 1: Hours of Association Involvement
Figure 2: Number of Associations
