Aspden TJ, Silwal PR, Marowa M, Ponton R. Why do pharmacists leave the profession? A mixed-method exploratory study.
Pharm Pract (Granada) 2021;
19:2332. [PMID:
34221201 PMCID:
PMC8216709 DOI:
10.18549/pharmpract.2021.2.2332]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2021] [Accepted: 05/23/2021] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Background:
Recent New Zealand policy documents aim for pharmacists to be retained, and
promote the provision of extended clinical pharmacy services. However,
younger pharmacists have expressed dissatisfaction with the profession on
informal social for a.
Objectives:
To explore the characteristics, and perspectives of pharmacy as a career, of
recent Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm, four-year degree) graduates who have
left, or are seriously considering leaving the New Zealand pharmacy
profession in the near future and where they have gone, or plan to go.
Methods:
We conducted a cross-sectional study with a mixed-method explanatory
sequential design. An anonymous online survey among those who completed
their pharmacy undergraduate degree (BPharm or equivalent) in 2003 or later
and who had left or who were seriously considering leaving the New Zealand
pharmacy profession in the next five years, was open from 1st
December 2018 to 1st February 2019. Recruitment occurred via
University alumni databases, pharmacy professional organisations,
pharmaceutical print media, social media and word-of-mouth. Ten
semi-structured interviews were then conducted with a purposive sample of
survey respondents. Descriptive statistics were generated from the
quantitative data and qualitative data were analysed using manifest content
analysis.
Results:
We received 327 analysable surveys of which 40.4% (n=132) were from
those who had already left the New Zealand pharmacy sector at the time of
the data collection and the rest (59.6% n=195) were those working
within the sector, but seriously considering leaving the profession. Reasons
most commonly reported for studying pharmacy were having an interest in
health and wanting to work with people. The most common reasons for leaving,
or wanting to leave, were dissatisfaction with the professional environment,
including inadequate remuneration, and a perceived lack of career pathways
or promotion opportunities. A wide range of career destinations were
declared, with medicine being most frequently reported.
Conclusions:
Most of the reasons for leaving/considering leaving the profession reported
relate to the values and features of the pharmacy profession such as the
professional environment, remuneration and career pathways. These findings
are consistent with other studies and may represent a barrier to achieving
the aims of recent health policy documents.
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