Stressors among Pharmacists in Home Care

Abstract

To identify stressors as factors causing stress in pharmacists who provide home care, we mailed a questionnaire on stress to 633 pharmacies providing home care services in Aichi Prefecture. Factor analysis of 257 valid responses identified 7 factors: “difficulty in caring for patients with end-stage conditions and conflicts perceived when providing such care”, “inappropriate patient behaviors such as offensive language”, “social support in the workplace”, “workload and time pressure”, “communication with doctors”, “communication with patients”, and “trust-based relationships with patients”. Additionally, qualitative analysis of free descriptions identified 6 factors: “systems for pharmacists to provide home care services”, “feeling conflicted about the role of pharmacists”, “financial compensation for the workload”, “relationships with other professionals”, “environments in patients’ homes”, and “insufficient knowledge and skills”. Thus, interpersonal relationships with other professionals, patients, and co-workers, patient deaths, and home carerelated services were shown to be stressors among pharmacists. The results of this study may be useful for stress management to prevent burnout among pharmacists, and reduce their stress.