Pharmacy, Health System Leadership Can Address Contributing Factors to Burnout

Addressing the underlying causes of pharmacist burnout is essential, according to Melissa Santibañez, PharmD, BCCCP, a critical care clinical pharmacist at Memorial Regional Hospital.

In an interview with Pharmacy Times®, Santibañez said the key to addressing underlying factors lies in greater awareness of burnout and its causes. She said that pharmacy managers sometimes have to see the tangible outcomes before understanding how significant of an issue burnout can be.

“I think by having that awareness, and instead of placing the tangible outcomes at the end—putting burnout at the beginning and the end as a possibility that can be happening to any of our employees at any time—that will kind of keep it on our back burners, mentally, that we need to keep our employees’ mental health and mental well-being at the center of everything that we do,” Santibañez said.