Wellbeing in a post-Covid world

Introduction

According to the World Health Organization, a healthy job is one where pressure on employees is “appropriate in relation to their abilities and resources, to the amount of control they have over their work, and to the support they receive from people who matter to them”.

Pharmacists, like other healthcare professionals, enter their career to care for patients. Yet internationally, nurses, doctors, teachers and pharmacists are reporting issues affecting wellbeing at work, with some noting a steady increase since the onset of the Covid pandemic. More recent developments like the cost of living crisis will also have an impact on anxiety levels. 

Looking at our own sector, the 2022 Workforce Wellbeing Survey by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and Pharmacist Support paints a worrying picture: 

• 96 per cent of community pharmacists are at high risk of burnout
• 45 per cent report poor or very poor mental health 
• 84 per cent report inadequate staffing levels in their pharmacy
• 73 per cent of all pharmacists have considered leaving their job or the profession altogether because of their work’s impact on their mental health 
• 53 per cent report a lack of work-life balance, while 42 per cent report long working hours.

Across almost all measures in the survey, community pharmacists reported worse wellbeing and higher workplace pressures than colleagues in other sectors.