Factors Associated with and Differences in Job Satisfaction between Community, Institutional, and Specialty Pharmacists

Abstract

Objectives: To determine whether community, institutional, or specialty pharmacists have greater job satisfaction and what factors were most positively associated with job satisfaction. Methods: A prospective study was performed by distributing a 47-item online questionnaire to a listserv of 6,700 pharmacists’ email addresses. Respondents completed the questionnaire by following the instructions provided in an invitation email. Results: Questionnaires were completed by 273 participants (mean age [SD] = 42.85 [11.90]). Ninety- seven (35.5%) participants classified themselves as community pharmacists, 90 (33.0%) classified themselves as institutional pharmacists, and 86 (31.5%) classified themselves as specialty pharmacists. All pharmacists reported mean satisfaction scores above 2.5, indicating they were satisfied in their jobs. However, specialty pharmacists were more optimistic than community pharmacists about the prospect of remaining in their current practice setting for the rest of their working lives (p < .05). Perceived utilization of skills was the factor most associated with job satisfaction (p < .001). Conclusions: Job satisfaction was directly related to pharmacists’ perceived utilization of skills. Community, institutional, and specialty pharmacists had comparable job satisfaction, with specialty pharmacists having a higher level of agreement that they would enjoy spending the rest of their careers in their current job compared to those in community practice.