Workplace stress study of Ulaanbaatar city and rural community pharmacists

Abstract

Background: Chronic stress at work leads to burnout - chronic fatigue and inability to work followed by emotional exhaustion, instability or a negative attitude towards oneself and others. Although there are many studies on stress in Mongolia, there is no study to assess the workplace stress among the community pharmacists which is one of the reasons for conducting this research. Purpose: To assess the workplace stress of a community pharmacist. Materials and methods: The survey was conducted using a random samples via cross sectional methods among the community pharmacists in Ulaanbaatar and the rural areas. The questionnaire contains five groups with 35 questions - was developed by american scientist Alan P. Wolfgang. It was Likert’s hierarchical score and the sum of the scores for each question. The study uses SPSS 25.0 to identify differences and relationships between groups. Results: A total of 316 community pharmacist/pharmacy technicians were participated in the survey. According to the questionnaires of the surveyed participants: the 88.4% (168) of them were from urban, 71.4% (90) are rural, and 11.6% (22) are urban and 28.6% (36) are rural - was p=0.0001. Comparing the questionnaires by group, the average customer responsibility in the first group was 30.9±4.7 in urban areas, 25.4±4.8 in rural areas, and 5.5 in urban areas, p=0.0001. In the second group, the average number of workplace violations was 18.7±4.5 in urban areas, 15.0±3.3 in rural areas, and 3.7 in urban areas, p=0.0001. In the third group, the medically acceptable average was 33.3±6.1 in urban areas, 30.6±5.6 in rural areas, and 2.7 in urban areas, p=0.0001. In the fourth group, the average workload was 33.1±5.0 in urban areas and 26.1±6.2 in rural areas, which is 7.0 higher in urban areas than p=0.0001. In the fifth group, the average distribution of occupations and responsibilities was 18.2±3.6 in urban areas and 17.9±4.6 in rural areas, with no statistically significant difference p=0.437. Comparing the stress levels of Ulaanbaatar and rural community pharmacists, the average stress level was 134.2±20.9 in urban areas and 115.1±21.7 in rural areas, which is 19.2 times higher in urban areas (p=0.0001). Conclusion: According to the study, the 88.4% or more of the community pharmacists suffer from the job stress. As the workload increases, so does the degree of stress. The level of the job stress was considered higher in Ulaanbaatar.