Quality of work life (QWL) of community pharmacists and its association with subjective evaluations of pharmaceutical services

Abstract

BackgroundIn Japan, pharmacists' role has drastically changed in recent years. However, previous studies have not performed internal marketing analysis for Japanese community pharmacists so that they improve the quality of work life (QWL) and be satisfied with it. Further, few studies are conducted on Japanese community pharmacists' QWL and its effect on the quality of pharmaceutical services. ObjectivesThis study aimed to reveal associations between community pharmacists' QWL and their subjective evaluations of pharmaceutical service. MethodsA questionnaire survey was conducted among 2027 pharmacists, with the cooperation of 20 corporations that run pharmacies. The collected data were subjected to multiple regression analysis, using SPSS 29. ResultsStandard multiple regression shows that 27.4% of variance in pharmacists' subjective evaluations of their service was explained by QWL and other control variables, such as age, gender, and employee status (p < .001, R2 = 0.274). This analysis showed that factors behind pharmacists' QWL, “meaning of existence in the workplace” and “pride in work,” explained pharmacists' subjective evaluations of pharmaceutical service (β = 0.307, p < .001, β = 0.277; p < .001, respectively). ConclusionThis study shows that improving QWL, especially “mental and physical effects on work” and “pride in work,” might contribute to improving community pharmacists' services.