Balancing workload and wellbeing

Pharmacist workload can be categorised by work, professional and business characteristics. 

• Work characteristics: hours worked per week, time spent as sole pharmacist, number of prescriptions dispensed where the pharmacist was personally involved, number and types of interactions pharmacists have with others on a typical day
• Professional characteristics: managing medicine supply and dispensing, professional and clinical services and administration, patient consultations
• Business characteristics: time spent managing people and assets, administration, achieving targets and KPIs. 

Community pharmacists’ workload continues to increase as they assume new roles with expanding contractual requirements and an increased volume of dispensed prescriptions, while working within a highly competitive business environment. While we can measure prescription volume and hours worked, we often forget about the impact of ‘mental workload’. 

A study for Pharmacy Research UK found: “We know that not only the amount of work we are asked to do, but the environment we are asked to do the work in and the way we are asked to do it can affect how much mental workload we experience. So not only can the amount of work we are doing cause high mental workload, sometimes the work environment or the way a task is carried out can create even more work for our brains.” 

While there are some pockets of research into this area, the impact of mental workload needs further investigation. How often do you think about your mental workload?