Molecular Enzymology and Drug Targets

Keywords: Pharmacy retail outlets; Pharmacists; Satisfaction; drug store; druggist

Introduction

Community pharmacies in addition to dispensing pharmaceuticals they involve in many activities that needs their participation as involving and controlling business, trade management, and budgeting and personnel management. Pharmacists are usually viewed as multidisciplinary professionals because their activities are much diverse based on the type of job setting they are involving. Pharmacy professional category includes Pharmacy Assistant Level II, Pharmacy Assistant Level III, Pharmacy Technician Level IV (Druggist), Pharmacist, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, and Doctor of Pharmacy.Community pharmacists play an important role in reducing medication related problems and improving patient’s overall health status through providing different services including patient counseling. Research’s showed that pharmacists (especially community pharmacists) are the most accessible health care professionals and their major role is compounding and dispensing of medicines.Job satisfaction is a key factor for effective application of pharmacy professional’s role. Job satisfaction is a multidimensional, enduring, important, and much-researched concept in the field of organizational behavior and has been identified as recognition in one’s field of work, level of salary, opportunities for promotion, and achievement of personal goals. Poor job satisfaction is directly associated with poor performance especially in professionals like pharmacy professionals. These performance problems include incorrectly filling prescriptions, not detecting drug interactions and poor patient counseling. Thus, dissatisfaction may also affect the way that patients view the pharmacist and hence affects the interaction of the patient with the pharmacist. Job dissatisfaction directly affects labor market behavior and economic efficiency by means of the impact on productivity and turnover of staff.

Pharmacist’s job satisfaction is also negatively associated with job turnover; that is Pharmacists with low levels job of satisfaction are more likely to resign their positions.In Ethiopia, there are more than 650 pharmacy retail outlets , which are divided into pharmacy, drug store and rural drug vendors based on the type of medications they are supposed to dispense and the qualification of dispensers.Different factors are associated with job satisfaction of pharmacists especially in the community pharmacy setting such as perceived work load, information technologies, continuing pharmacy education, preceptor ship, treatment by the management, interpersonal interaction including patient contact and coworkers’ relationship, pharmacy ownership, and practice setting are found to have association with satisfaction.A study conducted to assess pharmacists’ job satisfaction and intention to quiet the profession shows that Job satisfaction directly influences the quality of work they provided in which dissatisfaction may cause harm to the patient, their overall life satisfaction and their intention to remain or to change their job.Loss of clinical staff from low and middle-income countries is crippling the already fragile health care systems of the region. Retention of health worker is critical for performance health care system and a key problem is how to motivate and retain health workers.At the heart of each country’s health system, health workers struggle to provide high-quality care to growing patient loads in increasingly challenging working conditions. In developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, pharmacists were facing shortages of supplies, poor compensation, inadequate management systems, and heavy workloads. Job satisfaction among employees is an indicator of organizational effectiveness and is influenced by organizational and dispositional factors. Pharmacy professional’s job satisfaction has been found to be negatively associated with job turnover, that is, Pharmacy professionals with low levels of job satisfaction are more likely to resign their positions. If a Pharmacy professional is not satisfied with his/her work, he/she may bring those ill feelings from their job home and allow them to affect his/her life outside of the workplace. In Mizan –Aman and Tepi town, study addressing job satisfaction of pharmacy professionals is yet not done, which is a vital for health care system quality improvement. Therefore this study assessed the level of job satisfaction pharmacy professionals working at drug stores in Mizan Aman and Tepi town south west Ethiopia.

Methodology

Study area and period

The study was conducted among Pharmacy professionals working in Pharmacy retail outlets found in Mizan- Aman town in Bench Maji Zone and Tepi town in Sheka Zone, South Nation, Nationalities and People’s Region (SNNPR), South West Ethiopia. Mizan- Aman is located 563 km South West of Addis Ababa. Mizan- Aman town has one hospital, one health center, two health post, and 21 drug stores. Tepi town has one general hospital, one health center, 12 health post and 13 drug stores. The study was conducted from March 13 -March 24, 2018.

Study design

A cross-sectional study was conducted.

Population

Source Population

All pharmacy professionals working at Mizan-Aman and Tepi town Pharmacy retail outlets.

Study population

All Pharmacy professionals working in Mizan-Aman and Tepi town at Pharmacy outlets that fulfills the inclusion criteria was included.

Sample size determination

Since all of the study population in the study area was covered, sample size determination was not utilized. All the 35 pharmacy professionals working in Pharmacy retail outlets found in Mizan-Aman and Tepi towns was invited to participate in the study. Out of the 35 Pharmacy professionals invited to participate on the study, the 33 was willing to be participate in the study.

Data Collection instruments

A structured questionnaire was developed based on the published literature regarding satisfaction of pharmacy professionals. The prepared questionnaires were distributed among the Pharmacy professional working Pharmacy retail outlets found in Mizan Aman and Tepi towns. The data collection was done through self-administered questionnaires.

The questionnaires were designed to consist of two sections; Section A consists of socio demographic information to obtain personal information from respondents, average working hour per day and salary per month. The other section was deal with questions to help test the research hypothesis or to determine the level of satisfaction of community pharmacists. Most of the questions require respondents to indicate their level of agreement to the items in the research model. Items in the questionnaire were measured using a five-point Likert Scale, with 1 representing „strongly disagreeâ?? and 5 representing strongly agree. For calculating the overall satisfaction level of all participants the value from each 17 questions we choose to asses level of satisfaction were transformed in to computed variable and a mean value of Likert scale which gained from adding scales from 1 to 5 and divided by 5 which is 3 was used as a cutoff point. It used to determine the level of satisfaction in to two out comes (satisfied or unsatisfied) and the total percent of satisfaction can be calculated from this outcome.

Data quality assurance

Before data collection data collection tool was checked for completeness, accuracy, clarity and consistency by the investigator and necessary modification was made timely. The pre-test was done before actual data collection on one drug store.

Data processing

The Statistical package for Social Science (SPSS) programs version 21.0 for windows was used to enter and encode the collected data. This involves organizing the data into categories, coding and sorting them to identify patterns and interpret the meaning of the responses. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage and mean was used to summarize the result.

Ethical Consideration

Ethical clearance was obtained from the Mizan Tepi University College of health science, department of Pharmacy. In this study, issues related to the ethical conduct such as informed consent, confidentiality and privacy was upheld. The researcher has given full information on the purpose and objectives of the study to the study participants order to empower the study participants to make informed decisions on whether to participate or not.

Operational definitions

• Druggist: is an individual who have diploma qualification in pharmacy and work in drug store
• Pharmacist: is an individual with degree qualification in pharmacy
• Job satisfaction: is the degree of expression level of pleasurable altitude towards one individuals
• Satisfied: is a value above pleasurable cut off point towards each question and overall values.
• Unsatisfied: is a value below a pleasurable cut off points towards each question and overall values.

Results

Socio Demographic Characteristics of the respondents

A total of 35 community pharmacy outlets are found in Mizan and Tepi towns; out of them, 33(94.3%), were participated in the study. Majority, 27(81.8%), of the participants were males. Majority, 20(60.6%), of the study participants were between age groups of 20-30 years. The mean age of study participants were 32.33± 8.184 years old. The 19(57.6%) of the respondents were married. The 32(97%) of the study participants were druggists, only 1(3%) was pharmacist. Around half, 16(48.5%), of them have work experience of 5-10 years. The 14(42.4%) of the participants’ monthly salary was less than equal 3000 EtBr, only 5(15.2%) has monthly of more than 5001 EtBr (Table 1).

Table 1: Socio Demographic Characteristics of the respondents (N=33).

Overall Job Satisfaction Level of the Study Participants

Out of 33 community pharmacists participated in the study, 78.8% of them were satisfied by their current job while the rest 21.2% were not satisfied (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Overall job satisfaction of Pharmacy Professionals Working at pharmacy retail outlets found in Mizan-Aman and Tepi towns, Southwest Ethiopia, March 13 to March 24, 2018.

job satisfaction level of study participants on specific job satisfaction items

According our study, the 21(63.6%) of the community pharmacist believed that the job has good future, in which 11 (33.3%) of them agreed and 10 (30.3%) of them strongly agreed that on the statement that the job have good future. The majority, 27(81.8%) of the respondents were satisfied with recognition job by the community, where 14(42.4% of them agreed and 13(39.4%) them strongly agreed on the issue. The 18(54.5%) of the respondents were satisfied with their salary, where 12(36.4%) agreed and 6(18.2%) strongly agreed that they receive good salary for their job and 23(69.7%) were satisfied with their working environment, where 16(48.5%) agreed and 7(21.2%) strongly agreed that they have good working environment for what they have planned to do (Table 2). The majority, 26(78.6%), were satisfied with their interaction with co-workers in work environment, where the 12(36.4%) agreed and 14(42.4%) strongly agreed. The 30(90.9%) believe that they are providing good benefit to the community but only 10(30.3%) satisfied with chance of training and/or chance of training in their working environment, in which 7(21.2%) agreed and 3(9.1%) strongly agreed (Table 2).

With respect of satisfaction with aspect of accomplishing job, the 23(69.7%) of the respondents were satisfied, in which 10(30.3%) agreed and 13(39.4%) strongly agreed that they are in right position for accomplishing their job. The 25 (75.7%) of the participants believe that they are free to use free to use their personal ability in working area, where 17(51.4%) agreed and 8(24.2%) strongly agreed. Significant proportion, 10(30.3%), of the study participants replied that their knowledge and skill have declined since being in current job, with 6(18.2%) agreed and 4(12.1%) strongly agreed with the issue (Table 2).

With regard to satisfaction with respect to restriction to the works, each 9(27.2%), agreed and strongly agreed that they are restricted in work due to professional guideline. Less than half the respondents, 14(42.4%), were satisfied with chance of professional development, where 8(24.2%) agreed and 6(18.2%) strongly agreed on the issue. The 19(75.5%) feel that the government respects their job, where 15(45.5%) agreed and 4(12%) strongly agreed that they feel the government respects the job (Table 2).

Table 2: Status of Job Satisfaction of the respondents

Discussion

The study was conducted on 33 participants. The purpose of this study was to determine the satisfaction level of pharmacy professionals working in community pharmacy outlets. Our study showed that majority (81.8%) of the participants was male. The 60.6% of the study respondents were at age group of 20-30 years.

Our study find out that in average the 78.8% of participants were satisfied with their job, while 21.2% of the participants were not satisfied with their job. The proportion of pharmacy professionals who are satisfied with their job is significantly higher than the study report of study done in USA Ireland and Ethiopia, where 68%, 57% and 62.5% respectively of the study participants were satisfied with their job [18, 19, 23]. This discrepancy on the findings may be due to the fact that the latter studies done large number of study participants and assessed job satisfaction of the participants on other sector of pharmacy works which is not included in this study. Our finding was also slightly higher than report of study done in Mekelle, North Ethiopia, which showed that 67.3 % of study participants were satisfied with their Job.

In the current study, the 54.6% of the participants were satisfied with their salary. In current study the proportion of study participants satisfied with the salary they earn with their job is significantly higher that study result of study done in Kerala, where 50% of the participants were dissatisfied with salary they earn from their job[20].

In contrast to this, a study conducted in China showed that the majority 76% of pharmacy professionals were satisfied with salary they were earning [24]. The reason for differences in magnitude of satisfaction by salary may be due to that China has a better capacity to pay more salary than Ethiopia since China has more developed and high economic strength as compared to Ethiopia.

In this study, 69.7% of the participants were satisfied with their working environment. This is lower than the study result of study done in China in which 90% of the participants were satisfied with their working environment [24]. The probable reason for the difference may be China has good working environment as compared to Ethiopia due to good management and adequate infrastructure.

In the present study, with respect of satisfaction by recognition their job community, 81.8% of the study participants was satisfied. The finding is significantly lower than study done in USA [13]. The difference may be due to availability of more health care professionals in developed country when compared with developing country like Ethiopia, so the number of the professional increase recognition by the society decrease. For good interaction with colleagues in work area increases job satisfaction and hence efficiency in pharmaceutical care delivery, trainings targeted at increasing interpersonal interaction in work area should be given to pharmacy professionals [21, 22].

Through this study, it was found that the respondents had a high level of satisfaction in the item like "I have good interaction with coworkers”, in which 78.8% of participant replied that they come to an agreement with this inquiry. Our result is higher than a study done at Nigeria which revealed that 62.4% of respondents responded that they had good relation with their staffs [25].This discrepancy may be due to cultural difference since Ethiopia had a culture that promotes inter-personal relationship.

In this study, 57.6% of study respondents were not satisfied with chance of professional development. The study conducted in South Nigeria revealed that 47.2% of pharmacists were not satisfied with their opportunity to develop their profession [25]. The difference may be due to that the former study was done in hospital pharmacy and also government of the country may give a chance to develop their profession.

In general majority of the community pharmacy professionals were satisfied with their job. Ministry of Health should further improve the satisfaction of community pharmacy professionals by creating good work environment, by modifying Pharmacy professional guide line, giving chance educational chance and training for professional development for job dissatisfaction causes deleterious impact on patient care despite the magnitude of the professionals dissatisfied in the discipline.

References

1. Lin B Y., Yeh Y C and Lin W H. (2007) The Influence of Job Characteristics on Job Outcomes of Pharmacists in Hospital, Clinic, and Community Pharmacies. Journal of medical systems. 31(3):224-29.
2. (2013)Directive on Continuing Professional Development for Health Professionals. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
3. Surur AS, Getachew E., Teressa E., Hailemeskel B., Getaw NS and Erku DA. (2017) S elf-reported and actual involvement of community pharmacists in patient counseling: a cross-sectional and simulated patient study in Gondar, Ethiopia. Pharmacy Practice. 15(1):809.
4. Abay, SM and Amelo, W. (2010) Assessment of Self-reported and actual involvement of community pharmacists in patient counseling: a cross-sectional and simulated patient study in Gondar, Ethiopia. 2(3):306-310.
5. Saari LM and Judge TA. (2004) Employee attitudes and job satisfaction. Human resource Management. 43(4):395-407.
6. Kreling DH, Doucette WR, Mott DA, Gaither CA, Pedersen CA and Schommer JC. Community pharmacistsâ?? work environments: evidence from the 2004 National Pharmacist Workforce Study. Journal of American Pharmacists Association. 2006, 46(3):331-339.
7. Belay YB. (2016) Job satisfaction among community pharmacy professionals in Mekelle city, Northern Ethiopia. Advances in medical education and practice. 7: 527â??531.
8. Vorster M. (2010) A Comparative Study on Pharmacist Job Satisfaction in the Private and Public Hospitals of the Northâ??West Province. Master Thesis.
9. Gaither CA, Kahaleh AA, Doucette WR, Mott DA, Pederson CA, Schommer JC. (2008) A modified model of pharmacists' job stress: The role of organizational, extra-role, and individual factors on work-related outcomes. Research in Social & Administrative Pharmacy. 4(3): 231-43.
10. Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia MOH. Health sector development program IV,2010/11-2014/15.
11. Peters DH. ,Chackraborty S., Mahapatra P and Steinhart L. (2010) Job satisfaction and motivation of health workers in public and private sectors; Indian states. Human resource for health. 8(27):1-11.
12. Ahmed SM, Tolera M and Angamo MT. (2013) Assessment of job satisfaction among pharmacy professionals in south west Ethiopia. International journal for pharmaceutical Sciences and research. 4(5): 2351-2358.
13. Hincapi AL., Yandow S., Hines S., Martineau M and Warholak T. (2012) Job satisfaction among chain community pharmacists: results from a pilot study. Pharm Pract (Granada). 10(4):227â??233.
14. Willis-Shattuck M, Bidwell P, Thomas S, Wyness L, Blaauw D and Ditlopo P. (2008) Motivation and retention of health workers in developing countries: a systematic review. BMC Health service research. 8:247
15. Hagopian A., Zuyederduin A., Kyobutungi N and Yumkella F. (2009) Job satisfaction and morale in the Uganda health work force. Health affairs. 28(5): 863-75.
16. Rothman S and Coetzer EP. (2002) The relationship between personality dimensions and job satisfaction. Business Dynamics. 11(1): 29-42
17. Maio V., Goldfarb NI and Hartmann CW. (2009) Pharmacistâ??s job satisfaction variation by practice setting. Pharmacistâ??s job satisfaction. 29(3): 184-189
18. McCann L., Hughes CM., Adair CG and Cardwell C. (2009) Assessment of job satisfaction and stress among pharmacists north Ireland. Pharmacy World Science. 31(2): 188-94.
19. Kiron S S., Premaletha K., Rjagopal PL and Saritha M. (2012) A study on the job satisfaction levels of Pharmacists working in a community pharmacy set-up at northern part of Kerala. IOSR Journal of Pharmacy. 2(3): 485-490.
20. Fernandes LG., Rodrigues VF., Ribeiro M I B and Pinto I C J. (2014) Work satisfaction with in pharmacy professionals. Advances in Pharmacology and Pharmacy. 2(1); 6 â?? 12.
21. Ahmad A., Khan MU., Elkalmi R M., Jamshed S Q., Nagappa A N and Patel I et al. (2015) Job Satisfaction among Indian Pharmacists. Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical education and Research. 50(1): 9-16.
22. Government of Ethiopia and the World Bank. Health Sector Review, Ethiopian social sector studies. Addis Ababa: Mega publisher,2004. 1st Ed.
23. Duan JJ., Li GC., Situ B., Tao J H., Deng X., Wu JY and Zhou T et al. (2011) Survey of career identity and job satisfaction among young hospital pharmacists in Guangdong province, China. African Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology. 5(3): 386-392.
24. Onwusah D O and Awharhievwie E O. (2017) Job Satisfaction among Hospital Pharmacists in South-South Nigeria. International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Research. 9(1): 59-7