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Abstract

Background: Job satisfaction is a multidimensional, enduring, important, and much-researched concept in the field of organizational behavior and has been identified as recognition in one’s field of work, level of salary, opportunities for promotion, and achievement of personal goals.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess of job satisfaction pharmacy professional working at pharmacy retail outlets found in Mizan-Aman and Tepi towns, South West Ethiopia.

Methods: A cross sectional method was conducted in Mizan Aman and Tepi town. All pharmacy professionals working at Mizan-Aman and Tepi town pharmacy retail outlets who fulfill the inclusion criteria were included. A structured questionnaire was developed based on the published literature regarding satisfaction of pharmacy professionals. The Statistical package for Social Science programs version 21.0 for windows was used to enter and encode the collected data.

Result: A total of 35 community pharmacists were invited to participate in the study; out of them only 33(94.3%) of them were participated in the study. Eighty two percent (82%) of them were males and sixty percent (60%) were aged between 20-30. From the study participants, majority (78.8%) of community pharmacists were satisfied with their overall job. In current study 63%, 81.8% and 54.5% of the study participants replied (or satisfied) that the job has good future, the community recognizes their job good and they earn good salary for their job respectively. Likewise, 42.2%, 69.7%and 75.7% of the study respondents replied that they have high chance of professional development, feel accomplishment after finishing their carrier every day and free to use personal ability in work respectively.

Conclusion and Recommendation: In general majority of the community pharmacy professionals were satisfied with their job. Ministry of Health should further improve the satisfaction of community pharmacy professionals by creating good work environment, by modifying Pharmacy professional guide line, educational chance and training, professional development as job dissatisfaction causes deleterious impact on patient care despite the magnitude of the professionals dissatisfied in the discipline.

Keywords: Druggist; Drug stores; Pharmacists; Pharmacy retail outlets; Satisfaction

Introduction

Community pharmacies in addition to dispensing pharmaceuticals they involve in many activities that need their participation as involving and controlling business, trade management, budgeting and personnel management. Pharmacists are usually viewed as multidisciplinary professionals because their activities are much diverse based on the type of job setting, they are involving [1]. Pharmacy professional category includes Pharmacy Assistant Level II, Pharmacy Assistant Level III, Pharmacy Technician Level IV (Druggist), Pharmacist, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, and Doctor of Pharmacy [2]. Community pharmacists play an important role in reducing medication related problems and improving patient’s overall health status through providing different services including patient counseling [3]. Research showed that pharmacists (especially community pharmacists) are the most accessible health care professionals and their major role is compounding and dispensing of medicines [4]. Job satisfaction is a key factor for effective application of pharmacy professional’s role. Job satisfaction is a multidimensional, enduring, important, and much-researched concept in the field of organizational behavior and has been identified as recognition in one’s field of work, level of salary, opportunities for promotion, and achievement of personal goals. Poor job satisfaction is directly associated with poor performance especially in professionals like pharmacy professionals [5]. These performance problems include incorrectly filling prescriptions, not detecting drug interactions and poor patient counseling. Thus, dissatisfaction may also affect the way that patients view the pharmacist and hence affects the interaction of the patient with the pharmacist [6]. Job dissatisfaction directly affects labor market behavior and economic efficiency by means of the impact on productivity and turnover of staff [7,8]. Pharmacist’s job satisfaction is also negatively associated with job turnover; that is Pharmacists with low levels job of satisfaction are more likely to resign their positions [9]. Different factors are associated with job satisfaction of pharmacists especially in the community pharmacy setting such as perceived work load, information technologies, continuing pharmacy education, preceptor ship, treatment by the management, interpersonal interaction including patient contact and coworkers’ relationship, pharmacy ownership, and practice [10-13]. A study conducted to assess pharmacists’ job satisfaction and intention to quiet the profession shows that Job satisfaction directly influences the quality of work they provided in which dissatisfaction may cause harm to the patient, their overall life satisfaction and their intention to remain or to change their job [14]. Loss of clinical staff from low and middle-income countries is crippling the already fragile health care systems of the region. Retention of health worker is critical for performance health care system and a key problem is how to motivate and retain health workers [15]. At the heart of each country’s health system, health workers struggle to provide high-quality care to growing patient loads in increasingly challenging working conditions. In developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, pharmacists were facing shortages of supplies, poor compensation, inadequate management systems, and heavy workloads. Job satisfaction among employees is an indicator of organizational effectiveness and is influenced by organizational and dispositional factors [16,17]. Pharmacy professionals job satisfaction has been found to be negatively associated with job turnover, that is, Pharmacy professionals with low levels of job satisfaction are more likely to resign their positions. If a Pharmacy professional is not satisfied with his/her work, he/she may bring those ill feelings from their job home and allow them to affect his/her life outside of the workplace [13]. In Mizan -Aman and Tepi town, study addressing job satisfaction of pharmacy professionals is yet not done, which is a vital for health care system quality improvement. Therefore, this study assessed the level of job satisfaction pharmacy professionals working at drug stores in Mizan Aman and Tepi town south west Ethiopia.

Methodology

Study area and period

The study was conducted among Pharmacy professionals working in Pharmacy retail outlets found in Mizan- Aman town in Bench Maji Zone and Tepi town in Sheka Zone, South Nation, Nationalities and People’s Region (SNNPR), South West Ethiopia. Mizan- Aman is located 563 km South West of Addis Ababa. Mizan- Aman town has one hospital, one health center, two health post, and 21 drug stores. Tepi town has one general hospital, one health center, 12 health post and 13 drug stores. The study was conducted from March 13 -March 24, 2019.

Study design

A cross-sectional study was conducted [25].

Population

Source Population

All pharmacy professionals working at Mizan-Aman and Tepi town Pharmacy retail outlets.

Study population

All Pharmacy professionals working in Mizan-Aman and Tepi town at Pharmacy outlets that fulfill the inclusion criteria were included.

Sample size determination

Since all of the study population in the study area was covered, sample size determination was not utilized. All the 35 pharmacy professionals working in Pharmacy retail outlets found in Mizan-Aman and Tepi towns were invited to participate in the study. Out of the 35 Pharmacy professionals invited to participate on the study, 33 willing to participate in the study.

Data Collection instruments

A structured questionnaire was developed based on the published literature regarding satisfaction of pharmacy professionals. The prepared questionnaires were distributed among the Pharmacy professional working Pharmacy retail outlets found in Mizan Aman and Tepi towns. The data collection was done through self-administered questionnaires.

The questionnaires were designed to consist of two sections; Section “A” consists of socio demographic information to obtain personal information from respondents, average working hour per day and salary per month. The other section dealt with questions to help test the research hypothesis or to determine the level of satisfaction of community pharmacists. Most of the questions require respondents to indicate their level of agreement to the items in the research model. Items in the questionnaire were measured using a five-point Likert Scale, with 1 representing “strongly disagree” and 5 representing “strongly agree”. For calculating the overall satisfaction level of all participants, the value from each 17 questions we chose to asses level of satisfaction.

Data quality assurance

Before data collection data collection tool was checked for completeness, accuracy, clarity and consistency by the investigator and necessary modification was made timely. The pre-test was done before actual data collection on one drug store.

Data processing

The Statistical package for Social Science (SPSS) programs version 21.0 for windows was used to enter and encode the collected data. This involves organizing the data into categories, coding and sorting them to identify patterns and interpret the meaning of the responses. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage and mean were used to summarize the results.

Ethical Consideration

Ethical clearance was obtained from the Mizan Tepi University College of health science, department of Pharmacy. In this study, issues related to the ethical conduct such as informed consent, confidentiality and privacy was upheld. The researcher has given full information on the purpose and objectives of the study to the study participants order to empower the study participants to make informed decisions on whether to participate or not.

Operational definitions

? Druggist: is an individual who have diploma qualification in pharmacy and work in drug store.

? Pharmacist: is an individual with degree qualification in pharmacy.

? Job satisfaction: is the degree of expression level of pleasurable altitude towards one individual.

? Satisfied: is a value above pleasurable cut off point towards each question and overall values.

? Unsatisfied: is a value below a pleasurable cut off points towards each question and overall values.

Results

Socio Demographic Characteristics of the respondents

A total of 35 community pharmacy outlets are found in Mizan and Tepi towns; out of them, 33(94.3%), were participated in the study. Majority, 27(81.8%), of the participants were males. Majority, 20(60.6%), of the study participants were between age groups of 20-30 years. The mean age of study participants were 32.33± 8.184 years old. 19(57.6%) of the respondents were married. 32(97%) of the study participants were druggists, only 1(3%) was pharmacist. Around half, 16(48.5%), of them have work experience of 5-10 years. 14(42.4%) of the participants’ monthly salary was less than 3000 EtBr, only 5(15.2%) have monthly of more than 5001 EtBr (Table 1).

Overall job satisfaction level of the study participants

Out of 33 community pharmacists participated in the study, 78.8% of them were satisfied by their current job while the rest 21.2% were not satisfied (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Overall job satisfaction of Pharmacy Professionals Working at pharmacy retail outlets found in Mizan-Aman and Tepi towns, Southwest Ethiopia, March 13 to March 24, 2019.

Job satisfaction level of study participants on specific job satisfaction Items

According to our study, 21(63.6%) of the community pharmacists believed that the job has good future, in which 11 (33.3%) of them agreed and 10 (30.3%) of them strongly agreed that on the statement that the job has good future. The majority, 27(81.8%) of the respondents were satisfied with recognition job by the community, where 14(42.4% of them agreed and 13(39.4%) them strongly agreed on the issue. 18(54.5%) of the respondents were satisfied with their salary, where 12(36.4%) agreed and 6(18.2%) strongly agreed that they receive good salary for their job and 23(69.7%) were satisfied with their working environment, where 16(48.5%) agreed and 7(21.2%) strongly agreed that they have good working environment for what they have planned to do (table 2).

The majority, 26(78.6%), were satisfied with their interaction with co-workers in work environment, where 12(36.4%) agreed and 14(42.4%) strongly agreed. 30(90.9%) believe that they are providing good benefit to the community but only 10(30.3%) were satisfied with chance of training and/or chance of training in their working environment, in which 7(21.2%) agreed and 3(9.1%) strongly agreed (table 2). With respect to satisfaction with aspect of accomplishing job, 23(69.7%) of the respondents were satisfied, in which 10(30.3%) agreed and 13(39.4%) strongly agreed that they are in right position for accomplishing their job. 25 (75.7%) of the participants believe that they are free to use their personal ability in working area, where 17(51.4%) agreed and 8(24.2%) strongly agreed. Significant proportion, 10(30.3%), of the study participants replied that their knowledge and skill have declined since being in current job, with 6(18.2%) agreed and 4(12.1%) strongly agreed with the issue (table 2). With regards to satisfaction with respect to restriction to the works, each 9(27.2%) agreed and strongly agreed that they are restricted in work due to professional guideline. Less than half the respondents, 14(42.4%), were satisfied with chance of professional development, where 8(24.2%) agreed and 6(18.2%) strongly agreed on the issue. 19(75.5%) feel that the government respects their job, where 15(45.5%) agreed and 4(12%) strongly agreed that they feel this issue (table 2).

Discussion

The study was conducted on 33 participants. The purpose of this study was to determine the satisfaction level of pharmacy professionals working in community pharmacy outlets. Our study showed that majority (81.8%) of the participants were male. 60.6% of the study respondents were at age group of 20-30 years. Our study found out that in average 78.8% of participants were satisfied with their job, while 21.2% of the participants were not satisfied with their job. The proportion of pharmacy professionals who are satisfied with their job is significantly higher than the study report of India (17.5%) and Harar town (74.4%) Ethiopia [18, 19]. This discrepancy on the findings may be due to the fact that the latter studies were done on a large number of study participants and assessed job satisfaction of the participants on other sector of pharmacy works which is not included in this study. Our finding was also slightly higher than the study done in Mekelle, North Ethiopia, which showed that 67.3 % of study participants were satisfied with their Job [7]. In the current study, 54.6% of the participants were satisfied with their salary. This value is higher that study result of study done in Kerala, where 50% of the participants were dissatisfied with salary they earn from their job [20]. In contrast to this, a study conducted in China showed that the majority 76% of pharmacy professionals were satisfied with salary they were earning [23]. The reason for differences in magnitude of satisfaction by salary may be due to that China has a better capacity to pay more salary than Ethiopia since China has more developed and high economic strength as compared to Ethiopia. In this study, 69.7% of the participants were satisfied with their working environment. This is lower than the study result done in China in which 90% of the participants were satisfied with their working environment [23]. The probable reason for the difference may that China has good working environment as compared to Ethiopia due to good management and adequate infrastructure. In the present study, with respect to satisfaction by recognition of their job community, 81.8% of the study participants were satisfied. The finding is significantly lower than the study done in USA [13]. The difference may be due to availability of more health care professionals in developed country when compared with developing country like Ethiopia, so the number of the professionals increases recognition by the society former studies. Good interaction of Pharmacists with their colleagues in work area increases job satisfaction. Therefore, trainings targeted at increasing culture of interpersonal interaction should be given to pharmacy professionals [21, 22]. Through this study, it was found that the respondents had a high level of satisfaction in the item like "I have good interaction with coworkers”, in which 78.8% of participants replied that they come to an agreement with this inquiry. Our result is higher than a study done at Nigeria which revealed that 62.4% of respondents responded that they had good relation with their staffs [24]. This discrepancy may be due to cultural difference since Ethiopia has a culture that promotes inter-personal relationship. In this study, 57.6% of study respondents were not satisfied with chance of professional development. The study conducted in South Nigeria revealed that 47.2% of pharmacists were not satisfied with their opportunity to develop their profession [24]. The difference may be due to that the former study was done in hospital pharmacy and also government of the country may give a chance to develop their profession.

Conclusion and Recommendation

In general majority of the community pharmacy professionals were satisfied with their job. Ministry of Health should further improve the satisfaction of community pharmacy professionals by creating good work environment, by modifying Pharmacy professional guide line, giving chance educational chance and training for professional development as job dissatisfaction causes deleterious impact on patient care despite the magnitude of the professionals dissatisfied in the discipline.

Acknowledgment

The author acknowledges Mizan-Tepi University department of pharmacy for all positive co-operations during the conduction of the study.

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