Characteristics of Illinois night shift work pharmacists

Abstract

Background Certain pharmacy sectors including 24-h community retailers and hospitals usually divide work schedules by shifts such as daytime, evening, and night shifts. The pharmacy literature dealing with the various types of alternative work schedules has not addressed the pharmacy night shift workforce specifically. Objective To obtain baseline information on night shift work pharmacists through analysis of the Illinois Pharmacist Compensation Survey 2005. Methods The biennial Pharmacist Compensation Survey, a 4-page self-administered questionnaire, was mailed in late 2005 to a random sample of pharmacists residing in Illinois, United States of America. Pharmacists who indicated that their gross base earnings included a shift differential were classified as shift work pharmacists. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and t tests were used to compare shift work pharmacists to nonshift work pharmacists. An alpha level of 0.05 was used to determine statistical significance. Results In Illinois, pharmacists receiving shift work differential pay were more likely to be women staff hospital pharmacists who work fewer weeks per year. Also, they spent significantly less time on business management activities and functions other than consultation, drug management, and dispensing. Conclusions Night shift workers in pharmacy might be different from the nationwide shift workforce. Understanding the characteristics that best describe shift work pharmacists might help employers better tailor their recruitment efforts for this type of schedule.