BURNOUT AMONG PHARMACISTS: THE INFLUENCE OF INDIVIDUAL AND JOB CHARACTERISTICS

The purpose of this study was to investigate the following questions: (1) What is the degree of experienced burnout among practicing pharmacists in the United States? (2) To what extent do each of several individual characteristics and job-related factors contribute to pharmacist burnout? and (3) What combination of individual and job factors best accounts for pharmacist burnout? Burnout, as defined by Maslach, is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion and cynicism that occurs frequently among individuals who do \u27people-work\u27 of some kind. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was used to measure degree of burnout on three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. A mail survey questionnaire was used to collect data and responses from a national sample of 1269 pharmacists provided the basis for analysis. Pharmacists were found to be experiencing moderate levels of burnout. About 12 percent of the respondents were experiencing high degrees of burnout frequency and twice as many were experiencing high degrees of burnout intensity. These pharmacists had high scores on the emotional exhaustion and depersonalization dimensions and low scores on the personal accomplishment dimension of the MBI. Pharmacists\u27 scores on the three MBI dimensions were lower than a normative sample of helping professionals. The following personal and career background variables were shown to be significantly correlated with burnout scores: gender, marital status, number of children, and membership in professional organizations. The following job characteristics were also found to be highly related with burnout scores: pharmacy practice setting, job position, number of years on the job, job-related stress dimensions of job/career discontent, lack of job control, adverse work conditions, hectic work schedule, social interaction, and undesirable practice roles. When all of the individual characteristics and job-related factors were simultaneously considered in regression analyses, the percentage of variance in burnout scores accounted for ranged from 10 to 30 percent. Job factors, particularly the job-related stress dimensions, were found to have better predictive power than individual characteristics