An Assessment Of The Impact Of Decentralized Clinical Staff Pharmacists On Nurses At A Tertiary Referral Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of decentralized clinical staff pharmacists (CSPs) on nursing staff in a university- affiliated teaching hospital. Areas of interest include perceived quality of patient care, job satisfaction and nursing job retention. Methods: CSP impact was evaluated using a print-based survey utilizing outcomes items and a four-point Likert-type scale with response options ranging from “Agree” to “Disagree.” Nurses also answered demographic questions about experience, time at the institution, education leve and frequency of interaction with a CSP. Analysis of the data included use of descriptive statistics as well as use of Kendall’s tau-b to evaluate differences between groups based frequency of CSP interaction. Results: Respondents included 122 nurses at University Medical Center (UMC) in Tucson, Arizona in positions supported by a CSP during the summer of 2006. Nurses overwhelmingly selected “Agree” or “Somewhat Agree” for all 12 statements about the CSPs indicating that they found their interaction with CSPs valuable. Nurses who interacted more frequently with CSPs were more likely to “Agree” or “Somewhat agree that CSPs were valuable members of the hospital (p=.049), one reason they remained at UMC (p=.007), helpful with medication questions (p=.008) and improved job satisfaction (p=.013), made their job easier (p=<.001) as well as more enjoyable (p=.027)