Community pharmacists’ subjective workload and perceived task performance: A human factors approach

Abstract

ObjectiveTo measure the association of three categories of community pharmacists’ subjective workload with perceived performance in pharmacists’ tasks. DesignCross-sectional descriptive study. SettingWisconsin, September 2009. Participants224 Wisconsin community pharmacists. InterventionWeb-based or mailed survey. Main outcome measuresSelf-reported workload in task-, job-, and organization-related categories and their association with perceived performance on completing a profile review, checking the accuracy of a prescription, and providing a patient consultation for a new medication. ResultsMultivariate regression analysis showed that performing a profile review was positively associated with monitoring demands (reacting quickly to prevent problems) and significantly negatively associated with external task demands (interruptions, rushing). The task of verifying prescription accuracy was positively associated with monitoring demands and negatively associated with volume demands (having enough time to get work done). Patient consultation performance was positively associated with cognitive (using skills and knowledge) and monitoring demands and negatively associated with external demands. ConclusionThese findings revealed the importance of measuring workload demands after separating the demands into categories and that different work demands are associated with performance of different tasks. As a result, no one solution will improve performance, and specific work environments must be considered when crafting solutions.