Journal of Health Services Research & Policy > Volume 14, Number 3 > Pp. 141-149

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Original research

Delivering health care through community pharmacies: are working conditions deterring female pharmacists' participation?

Wendy Gidman , Jennie Day ¹, Karen Hassell ², Katherine Payne ³

Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow; ¹ Five Boroughs Partnership Trust, Warrington; ² Centre of Pharmacy Workforce Studies, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester; ³ Health Methodology Research Group, School of Community Based Medicine, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

Correspondence to: WendyGidman{at}btinternet.com

Objective: Recent UK government policy has placed community pharmacists at the frontline of health care delivery in order to improve patient access. Community pharmacy has been beset by recruitment and retention problems which potentially threaten health service delivery. This is largely a consequence of an increased demand for pharmacists. Additionally, the proportion of female pharmacists in the profession has risen. Consequently, interrupted career patterns and part-time working practices have increased, shrinking the pool of available workers. This study aimed to examine the importance of factors influencing female community pharmacists' work patterns.

Method: Q methodology was used in a sample of 40 female UK-based community pharmacists.

Results: Nine distinct factors emerged from a factor analysis of Q sorts: fulfilled pharmacists; family first or pharmacy shelved; low stress altruist; permanent part-time employees; focused on free time and finances; pressurized modernizers; wandering wage slaves; overloaded and under resourced for the new contract; and pin money part-timers. Female community pharmacists often worked below their potential and part-time at a practitioner level in response to a combination of domestic commitments and intensifying work place pressures.

Conclusions: Family-friendly flexible work environments, adequate staffing levels and improved management support, might be more effective in increasing workforce participation than enhanced salary levels in this group of workers.

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