Pharmacist and student pharmacist views of professional and personal well-being and resilience

Objectives: To describe the views of pharmacists and student pharmacists regarding (1) aspects of life and experiences that provide professional and personal satisfaction and fulfillment, (2) causes of stress, and (3) needs related to maintaining satisfaction and fulfillment. Design: A generic qualitative research design was used for collecting data from 380 pharmacists and 332 student pharmacists who wrote responses to an online survey hosted by the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) from November 17 to December 2, 2018, using standard data collection procedures applied by that organization. APhA uses its member and affiliate data files as its sampling frame and limits the number of contacts per year for each person in those files. De-identified responses from those who volunteered to write comments were sent to the research team for analysis. A conventional content analysis approach was applied for analysis of the text. Analysts convened to discuss emergent themes and develop operational descriptions. Key segments of text that best represented each theme were identified. Personal presuppositions were disclosed and were useful for developing group consensus for theme identification and description. Rigor was supported through assessment of credibility, confirmability, intercoder checking, transferability, inductive thematic saturation, and authenticity. Setting and participants: Participants are in the design since data already collected. Outcome measures: Not applicable. Results: Findings showed that pharmacists and student pharmacists are able to recognize and pursue achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, relationship, esteem, self-actualization, meaning, and accomplishment in both their professional and personal lives. However, external factors such as “workism” and individual factors such as “moral distress” were identified as areas of improvement that are needed for well-being and resilience. Conclusion: Pharmacists’ basic human needs are being met, but to improve well-being and resilience for pharmacists in both their professional and personal lives, there is a need for addressing both the external factors and individual factors that they encounter.