Objective: To examine the quality of worklife of pharmacists across practice environments.
Design: Written survey mailed to a stratified random sample of pharmacists.
Participants: 2,014 pharmacist-members of the American Pharmaceutical Association (APhA) residing in the United States.
Main outcome measures: Work-related attitudes including job satisfaction, career satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, likelihood of voting for a union, and patient care issues.
Results: Usable surveys were returned by 1,199 practicing APhA members (60% response rate). Overall, work-related attitudes were generally positive. However, clear differences were identified in quality-of-worklife perceptions associated with practice setting, area of primary responsibility, and several demographic variables. Some quality-of-worklife concerns were found in all practice settings. While a majority of respondents indicated that they would not vote for a union at their place of employment if given the opportunity, 43% of staff employee pharmacists (who would likely be targeted in any union campaign) indicated that they would definitely or probably vote for a union.
Conclusion: From the pharmacist's perspective, important quality-of-worklife issues include job and career satisfaction, turnover intention, and patient care concerns. The data provide a point of departure for future dialogue, action, and research aimed at understanding and enhancing the quality of pharmacists' worklife.