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Vol.42, No. 1（2018）23（23）

医薬品相互作用研究
一
般論
文
42（1） 23-31 （2018）

Examining the Relation between Occupational Awareness andOfficial Positions of Hospital Pharmacists
Ogushi KOHEI*1, 2）, Koinuma MASAYOSHI2, 3）, Momo KENJI2, 3）, Takagi AKIKO3）, andNakamura HITOSHI2, 3）
1）

IMS group Yokohama Shintoshi Neurosurgical Hospital
Graduate School of Pharmacy, Teikyo Heisei University
3）
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Teikyo Heisei University
2）（Received September 5, 2017; Revised November 13, 2017; Accepted December 12, 2017）
Fewer studies have focused on the work environment of hospital pharmacists 9,10）. Furthermore, reports on leaving
work or the reasons for leaving are limited to surveys on the hiring trends in medical care and welfare
professions 11）. Until now, there have been no reported studies conducted on hospital pharmacists. In this study, therelation between hospital pharmacists' occupational awareness and their official positions such as having general
positions or management roles were examined.
A questionnaire survey about job satisfaction was mailed to 491 hospital pharmacists who were randomly
selected from the regular members (2,594) listed in the November 2015 Kanagawa Prefecture Hospital Pharmacist
Association Register.
The most frequent reason given for quitting for all of the positions was low salary, which was followed bymarriage and raising children for those in general positions, family circumstances for those in leadership roles, andcareer advancement for those in management. The higher the position, the more the respondents cited notunderstanding research activities as a reason for quitting, whereas those in more general positions cited reasons
related to marriage and raising children. Significant relations were acknowledged for both these factors.
The results of this study show that the possible potential reasons given for quitting in the future differed anddepended on people's official positions.
Key Words: hospital pharmacists; occupational awareness; management

Introduction

conducted in 2014, the number of pharmacists

As medical care becomes more sophist icatedworking in medical institutions increased byand specialized, the roles of hospital pharmacists

2 , 1 6 2 p e o p l e o v e r t h e n u m b e r i n 2 0 1 2 2 ）.

as medical care professionals have become

Nevertheless, 44.8% of facilities have not yet

greater and their jobs more diverse. On April 30,

calculated the supplementary duties of ward

2010, the head of the Ministry of Health, Labour

pharmacists due to the large burden of duties

and Welfare's Health Policy Bureau released theoutside the ward 3 ）. Accordingly, while it is true

study: “On the promotion of medical teams

that the number of ward pharmacists has

through the cooperation and coordination ofincreased, the number of personnel remains

1）

medical staff ” . Furthermore, supplementary

limited; their duties have increased and now

duties of ward pharmacists were establishedcover a wide spectrum. Now, pharmacistsʼ workwhen the payment system for medical services ininvolves writing prescriptions for general

April 2012 was revised. Consequently, hospitalin-patients and out-patients; ward duties

pharmacists, as members of medical teams, areincluding the ICU; preparing sterile high calorieb e i n g a s k e d t o c o n t r i b u t e t o t h e i m p r o ve m e n t

infusions and injection fluids, including

and safety of medical care. According to a survey

ant i-cancer drugs; and part icipat ing in rounds

IMS group Yokohama Shintoshi Neurosurgical Hospital; 433, Edacho, Aoba-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa, 225-0013, Japan:
Graduate School of Pharmacy, Teikyo Heisei University; 4-21-2, Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo, 164-8530, Japan: and３）
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Teikyo Heisei University; 4-21-2, Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo, 164-8530, Japan.
連絡著者：小串興平 E-mail: ogushi.kohei@gmail.com TEL：045-911-2011 FAX：045-911-4517
１）２）

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医薬品相互作用研究

Vol.42, No. 1（2018）t h a t i nvo l ve t a s k s s u c h a s m a n a g i n g n u t r i t i o nawareness and the factors for theirand handling infection control measures anddissatisfaction differ depending on their roles ormedical care safety as part of the team.

p o s i t i o n s . I n t h i s s t u d y, t h e r e l a t i o n b e t w e e nPrevious studies have examined the job
4, 5）

hospital pharmacists' occupational awarenessand theand their official positions such as having

occupational awareness of staff such as nurses

general positions or management roles weresatisfaction of hospital staff members
and doctors

6‒9）. T h e s e s t u d i e s h a ve r e p o r t e d a

examined.

positive correlation between the satisfaction ofpatients and that of personnel such as physicians
and nurses

10）. However, fewer studies havefocused on the work environment of hospital
pharmacists

11, 12）

Methods
1. Target group of the questionnaire survey
and survey methods. Furthermore, reports on leaving

A questionnaire survey regarding job

work or the reasons for leaving are limited tosatisfaction (Figure 1) was mailed to 491

surveys on the hiring trends in medical care andhospital pharmacists who were randomly

welfare professions

13）. Until now, there have been

selected from the regular members (2,594) listed

no reported studies conducted on hospitalin the November 2015 Kanagawa Prefecture

pharmacists.

Hospital Pharmacist Association Register. These

I n c r e a s i n g j o b s a t i s f a c t i o n i m p r o ve s p a t i e n tquestionnaires were mailed together with returnsat isfact ion and is significant in improving theenvelopes to the pharmacistsʼ individual

effectiveness of management. Thus, it isaddresses for them to return them. The

important to improve the work environmentq u e s t i o n n a i r e s w e r e a n s w e r e d vo l u n t a r i l y a n dthrough studies related to peopleʼs occupational

collected anonymously. The survey wasawareness and their reasons for discont inuing

conducted from the beginning to the end ofwork. It appears as though people's occupational

February 2017.

Fig.1 A questionnaire survey

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2. Survey details

informed that answering the questionnaire was1）Basic attributes

voluntary. If the respondents returned the

The target group was asked to provide

questionnaire, they were considered to haveinformation on the following basic attributes:

consented to participate in the study. This study

sex, age (five levels), size of the facility where

was conducted after receiving approval of thethey worked currently (six levels), employment

Ethics Review Committee of Teikyo Heisei

history at their current facility, experience as a

University (approval number 28-069).

pharmacist, official positions (three levels), andtheir current duties; multiple answers wereallowed.

Results
Responses were received from 230 members of
the target group comprising 491 people; the2）Occupational awarenessThe occupational awareness about the current

response rate was46.8%. The backgrounds of the
respondents are depicted in Table 1.

workplace was scored on a five-point scale (5=Of the respondents, 42.6% were males (98high, 1= low) considering the following factors:

people) and 57.4% were females (132 people). A

ease of working, intention to continue working,b r e a k d o w n o f a g e g r o u p s r e ve a l s t h a t m o s t o fchange in the image of the workplace after

the respondents̶36.1%̶were in their 30s,

starting work, and feelings of growth. In

28.3% were in their 40s, and 24.3% were in theiraddition, the target group was asked for

20s.

potential reasons they could give if they decided

Most of the pharmacists held general positions

to quit their jobs in the future regardless of(57.4%) while 29.1% were in leadership roles andwhether they actually had any intention to quit;

13.5% were in management positions. The

multiple answers were allowed for this question.

number of years of experience as a pharmacist

Furthermore, they were also asked whether they

for those in general positions was 8.4 ± 7.2

had a history of job transfers.

y e a r s o n a n a ve r a g e ; r e s p o n d e n t s i n t h e i r 2 0 scomprised 42.4% of these responses. The number3）Methods of analysis

of years of experience as a pharmacist for thoseA cross-table was created to examine thein leadership positions was 16.7 ± 7.4 years on

relation between the target groupʼs official job

a n a ve r a g e ; r e s p o n d e n t s i n t h e i r 3 0 s m a d e u p

post and the possible potential reasons forthe largest age group in this category. Those inquitting their jobs in the future. Thereafter, an

management had 24.0 ± 7.8 years of experience

exact Cochran-Armitage trend test was employedon an average; respondents in their 40s formed

to look at the relation in the order of the official

the largest age group in this category. The mostpositions, and Fisher's exact test was performed

common task of the people in leadership roles

to analyze if there was any differences between

and general posit ions was the responsibility ofofficial positions. In addition, the Steel-Dwass

filling prescriptions and of people intest was used to compare the three groups withmanagement positions was labor management.

reg ard to the relat ion between work transfers,

In Table 2, the relat ion between the possible

occupational awareness about the current

potential reasons for quitting in the future ande m p l o y e r, a n d o f f i c i a l w o r k p o s i t i o n s . F o r t h e

the official position held is shown. The moststatistical processing conducted in this study, thefrequent reason given for quitting for all of thestatistical analysis software JMP®13.0 (SASpositions was low salary, which was followed by

Institute) was used.

marriage and raising children for those ingeneral positions, family circumstances for those4）Ethical considerationsin leadership roles, and career advancement for

When the questionnaire was mailed, the target

those in management. Results revealed that thegroup was given a written explanation of themost frequent answer given by males was a low

purpose of the study, its metho ds, and wassalary for general positions and management26（26）

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Table1 Background of the Respondents in the Questionnaire Survey

Table2 Potential reasons for quitting in the future and their relation to the post held
Results of having the respondents provide answers under the assumption that they had resigned from their current employer.
Even in cases where respondents do not intend to quit their jobs, they provide reasons imagined by them for doing so.

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positions, whereas the most frequent answer bystarting work (Figure 3-3). There was also a

females was a low salary for general posit ionss i g n i f i c a n t d i f f e r e n c e o b s e r ve d f o r a s e n s e o f

and leadership positions. However, males ing rowth between those in general posit ions andleadership posit ions most frequently answered

those in leadership positions who had had job

family circumstances as their reason for quitting,transfers in the past (p < 0.05); people inwhile females in management positions mostleadership positions felt a strong personalfrequently gave getting paid time off andgrowth (Figure 3-4).

working at their desired job as their reasons. The
higher the position, the more the respondents

Discussion

cited not understanding research activities as a

The results of this study show that the possible

reason for quitting, whereas those in morepotential reasons given for quitting in the future

general positions cited reasons related todiffered and depended on people's official

marriage and raising children. Significant

positions. This suggests that managing a

relations were acknowledged for both thesepharmacy department requires policies that arefactors. Figure 2 shows the possible potential

adapted to official job positions. It appears thatreasons for quitting in the future, by using

the reason behind those in general positions

graphs. The graphs were classified into theciting marriage and raising children as potential

following six shapes: the graph falling to thereasons for quitt ing was that 74.7% of those inright reflects the reasons of those in moregeneral positions were females in their 20s andgeneral positions, namely, raising children and30s. The reason for the peak-shaped graph ofmarriage (Figure 2-1); the graph rising to thehealth concerns was that pharmacists inright reflects the reasons of those inleadership positions place central roles inmanagement positions, namely, no understanding

business conducted in the inst itut ions and alsoof research activities (Figure 2-2); thehave many other tasks. Therefore, they seem tovalley-shaped graph depicts the reasons of a few

be mentally and physically exhausted. To preventof those in leadership roles, namely, poor

people from quitting for these reasons, it isrelations with hospital management(Figure 2-3);

essential to consider health management

the peak-shaped graph depicts the reasons ofincluding managing mental health, utilizing amany in leadership posit ions who cited healthstress check system, and creating anconcerns (Figure 2-4); the descending

employee-friendly work environment for

management graph depicts poor hierarchal

e ve r y o n e ; t h i s w a s b a s e d o n t h e r e s u l t s o f t h erelations where management did not choose thisdata analysis for all of the g roups 1 4 ）.Moreover,reason (Figure 2-5); and the ascending

studies on nurses who leave their jobs 15, 16） place

management graph depicted dissatisfaction with

importance on considering human relationships

assessments or the personnel system (Figure

within the organization and the number of years

2-6).

of clinical experience. However, the descending

In addit ion, the three g roups w ith reg ards tomanagement graph, which depicted poor

the relation between their occupational

hierarchal relations as a reason, suggests thatawareness concerning their current employers

those in management are unaware of theand official work positions according to whether

dissatisfaction of their subordinates. Therefore, it

they had had a job transfer were compared.

appears that people in management positions

There was a significant difference observed forneed to adopt a stance where they sincerely face

the change in the image of the workplace after

their subordinates by consulting with them. The

starting work between those in management anditems that indicated the evaluat ion and humangeneral positions who had never had a job

resource system as a reason for dissat isfact ion

transfer (p < 0.05); the respondents in

had an ascending management g raph. Based on

management positions responded that their

the fact that 22.6% of the managers chose not toimage of the workplace had improved after

match the hospital policy, it seems possible that28（28）

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Fig.2 Sorting the potential reasons for quitting in the future according to the shape of the graph
Table 2 shows the reasons why the Fisher exact test had p-values of <0.05 and <0.1. As the purpose was to look for trends for each job post,
there are no significant differences included, but the p-values <0.1 are included.

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Fig.3 Relationship between attachment with current post and occupational awareness about current place of employment(analyzed by groups based on whether or not respondents had transferred jobs)
Results of an analysis based on the relation between occupational awareness and job post (general position, leadership role, management) andthe job transfer groups (had transferred jobs or not). The larger numbers on the vertical axis indicate the more positive assessment.

there is dissatisfaction with the hospital

remedying the dissatisfaction about salaries

management who evaluate people in management

would be to evaluate certification qualifications.

positions. Furthermore, the work satisfaction of

The analysis conducted on the history of job

ward pharmacists is ascertained through atransfers showed a change in the o ccupat ional

comparison w ith other people

11）, and reg arding

awareness of the workplace; people inthe dissatisfaction about salaries, which was mostm a n a g e m e n t w h o h a d n e ve r h a d a j o b t r a n s f e roften selected, there are currently some facilities

gave high assessments of the image of thew h e r e s a l a r i e s a r e b a s e d o n q u a l i f i c a t i o n s 3 ）.

workplace after starting work. It appears that thisHowever, one potentially useful solution toresulted from their jobs being changed from

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on-site duties to labor management and3). Thus, these results may reflect the opinions ofconsequently, the improvement in their

hospital pharmacists across Japan. However, this

occupational awareness. Furthermore, people instudy was a cross-sectional study and did notleadership roles who had had job transfers in theconsider the t iming of job transfers; therefore,

past gave strong positive assessments about

the results could be different depending on the

feeling personal growth, and they strongly felt atiming of a job transfer.

sense of personal growth. Based on studies

It is also essential to continue the studies so as

conducted on the job transfers of hospitalto prevent hospital pharmacists from quitting andpharmacists 17）, it could possibly be the case thatt o h e l p t h e m i m p r o ve t h e i r j o b s a t i s f a c t i o n b ythey obtained a job transfer with the intention ofcreat ing a work environment where it is easiergaining credentials like specializations orfor them to work. This study explored the factors

cert ificat ions. Furthermore, there is a need forfor dissat isfact ion by fo cusing on official work

leadership that utilizes goal management toposition, and thus, future research should clarify

provide a sense of achievement for those in

the factors that are associated with improved job

general positions

18）.

satisfaction and undertake an investigation that

This study is limited to pharmacists belonging

could result in improved occupational awareness.

to the Kanagawa Prefecture Hospital Pharmacist

Finally, to obtain standardized data about

Association. In addition, the gender ratio of thehospital pharmacists, it would be good to revise

Kanagawa Prefecture Hospital Pharmacist

the questionnaire on the basis of the present

Association is 40.2% male to 59.8% female. This

results and use this revised survey for agender ratio was approximately the same as thenationwide study.

gender ratio of the respondents to thisquestionnaire. In addition, the same trends
observed for these pharmacists were observed for
those across Japan with regard to the age

Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interests to be
declared regarding the present study.

distribution of people in their 20s and 40s ( Table

Table3 Number and percentage of pharmacists working at the hospital according to age group
Excerpts from the 2014 doctor, dentist, and pharmacist survey

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