David A. Mott

Background: Board certification is a credential increasingly used to signal advanced clinical expertise and specialization in pharmacy. However, evidence associating board certification with workforce outcomes remains limited. The purpose of this study was to compare the economic and work‐life outcomes of board‐certified and noncertified United States pharmacists. Methods: The 2024 National Pharmacist Workforce Study (NPWS) is a cross‐sectional, online, descriptive survey that collected responses from U.S.‐licensed pharmacists. Data from 827 respondents who reported they were actively practicing as a pharmacist in either a hospital/health system ( n = 661) or ambulatory care ( n = 166) setting were weighted to create a representative sample. Economic and work‐life outcomes included hourly wage and perceived life satisfaction. Descriptive statistics and multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models were used to examine associations between board certification and the outcome variables. Results: The weighted sample of respondents actively practicing in hospital/health system ( n = 867) and ambulatory care ( n = 221) settings showed 26.3% and 35.3% were board‐certified, respectively. In the hospital/health system setting, board certification was significantly associated with higher hourly wages and higher perceived life satisfaction. In the ambulatory care setting, board certification was significantly associated with higher hourly wages and was not significantly associated with perceived life satisfaction. Conclusion: Board certification was associated with higher wages across both hospital/health system and ambulatory care settings, and higher life satisfaction among hospital/health system pharmacists. These findings suggest that board certification may provide meaningful economic and work‐life benefits for some pharmacists. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms linking certification to work activities and other work‐life outcomes, particularly in the ambulatory care setting.

Background: Infectious diseases (ID) pharmacists practice in an important therapeutic area and hold critical roles including leading antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programs and participating in ID clinical services. High United States pharmacist burnout prevalence, before and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic, ensures pharmacist shortages into the foreseeable future, prioritizing a need to protect ID pharmacist well‐being. Accordingly, work exhaustion (exhaustion), low professional fulfillment (fulfillment), and high job turnover intention (turnover) are particularly concerning. This study evaluated associations between work system characteristics and fulfillment, exhaustion, and turnover among ID/AMS pharmacists. Methods: The Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) 2.0 Model was used to guide classification and organization of items from a recent national ID/AMS pharmacist survey to identify work system characteristics associated with exhaustion, fulfillment, and turnover. The sample consisted of 484 licensed US pharmacists reporting involvement in formal or informal ID and/or AMS responsibilities. Multivariate binomial logistic regressions modeled the association of the independent variable domains on each outcome. Results: The proportion of respondents reporting high levels of fulfillment, exhaustion, or turnover was 42%, 24%, and 15%, respectively. High autonomy predicted high fulfillment (odds ratio [OR] = 22.741, p = 0.003) and low turnover (OR = 0.202; p < 0.001). A supervisor who listened to respondent concerns predicted low exhaustion (OR = 0.259, p < 0.001) and high fulfillment (OR = 3.972, p < 0.001). Adequate job resources predicted low exhaustion (OR = 0.200, p < 0.001) and high fulfillment (OR = 3.238, p < 0.001). Additionally, being asked to do activities beyond hiring expectations predicted high exhaustion (OR = 2.340, p = 0.017), while organizational strategies to improve well‐being predicted low turnover (OR = 0.315, p = 0.014). Conclusions: The findings validate the need to examine work system characteristics influencing pharmacists' perceptions about their work life. Strategically, organizations should ensure that ID/AMS programs are resourced appropriately, facilitate pharmacist autonomy, improve pharmacist‐leader communication, and manage ID/AMS pharmacists' workload. Improving these work system aspects can facilitate well‐being and enable ID/AMS pharmacists to successfully carry out their roles.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in health care workers experiencing temporary or permanent changes in employment due to layoffs, quits, and postpandemic increased job demand. Analyzing the association of the COVID-19 pandemic with employment changes and results of changes for practicing pharmacists and understanding the associations with demographic and work-related factors could inform practice, policy, and educational programs. This study aimed to explore the frequency, characteristics, and results of employment status changes (ESCs) experienced by pharmacists practicing pharmacy in March 2020 (ie, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic). Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional survey research design was used to collect data from a random sample of 93,990 licensed pharmacists in the United States. The study team developed an online survey questionnaire designed to assess the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on pharmacists’ work and work-life. The survey items used for this study related to ESCs, work-life characteristics, work characteristics in March 2020 and 2022, and demographic variables. A total of 4947 usable responses were received between November 2022 and January 2023. Results: Overall, 36.4% of respondents reported experiencing an ESC and approximately 70% of those reporting an ESC reported experiencing just 1 ECS. Overall, 39.5% of respondents who experienced an ESC stopped working (ie, were unemployed) pursuant to an ESC. Respondents who experienced an ESC reported significantly lower levels of work exhaustion and interprofessional disengagement and significantly higher levels of professional fulfillment in their current employment than respondents that did not experience an ESC. Conclusion: The overall increase in demand for workers in the health care sector appeared to provide opportunities for pharmacists, especially pharmacists with 1 to 10 years of experience, to change their employment situation, resulting in better work-life characteristics. Given projections of a pharmacist shortage, research, policy, and educational programs could determine the best practices to improve work settings and the work-life characteristics of practicing pharmacists to improve the health of the current pharmacist workforce.