Job satisfaction among Danish pharmacy staff – a questionnaire survey

Background: Job satisfaction among healthcare professionals has consequences for both staff and patients.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore job satisfaction among Danish pharmacy staff. Specifically, we aimed to compare job satisfaction among pharmacists and pharmacy technicians; pharmacy staff employed in community and hospital pharmacies; pharmacy staff across gender and age groups, and those employed in different Danish regions.
Method: The links to the online questionnaire consisting of demographic, profession-related, and job satisfaction questions were distributed to community and hospital pharmacies' institutional emails and selected Facebook groups. Job satisfaction was measured with a validated Danish version of the Measure of Job Satisfaction (MJS), assessing personal satisfaction, satisfaction with workload, professional support, training, payment, career prospects, and performed standards of care. Scores in the MJS range from 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating higher satisfaction. Descriptive statistics (i.e., means with standard deviations (SD)), bivariate analyses (i.e., ANOVA tests with Bonferroni corrections), and multivariate analyses (adjusted linear regression modeling) were performed to address the specific research questions.
Findings: In total, 500 respondents provided full data used in the analyses. The majority worked in a community pharmacy (81.4%), were pharmacy technicians (53.0%), females (88.6%), and in the age group 25-44 years (59.8%). Overall, the mean (SD) job satisfaction score was 3.6 (0.61), with the highest score concerning professional support and the lowest score concerning satisfaction with pay. When comparing pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, satisfaction with pay was higher among pharmacists (p<0.001), while overall satisfaction and satisfaction with workload was higher among pharmacy technicians (p<0.05). The difference in satisfaction with pay remained significant in adjusted analyses. When comparing community and hospital staff, overall and personal satisfaction, and satisfaction with workload and standards of care were higher among hospital staff (p<0.05), while satisfaction with training was higher among community pharmacy staff (p<0.05). In adjusted analyses, these differences remained. Additionally, satisfaction with pay and professional support appeared also to be higher in hospital staff (p<0.05). Further, all but satisfaction with prospects were higher in older compared to younger respondents (p<0.05), remaining so in adjusted analyses. There were no differences in job satisfaction between males and females, nor between pharmacy staff from different regions.
Conclusion: Job satisfaction among Danish pharmacy staff is relatively high. Differences between pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, and hospital and community pharmacy staff exist and need to be further investigated and/or addressed.