Getting the full picture: what are the enablers and barriers to a rural pharmacy workforce for employers and employees? A critical review of literature from 2002–2022

IF 1 Q4 PHARMACOLOGY & PHARMACY

Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research Pub Date : 2025-05-02 DOI:10.1002/jppr.70007

Zikai He MPhil, MPharm, BPharm, Lisa Bourke PhD

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Abstract

Purpose of review

Geographical maldistribution of pharmacists to regional and rural areas in Australia is well documented in a similar fashion to other health professions. This narrative review aimed to identify the enablers and barriers to staff recruitment and retention and ascertain the extent of evidence in the literature from the perspective of prospective employers.

Sources of information

A comprehensive literature search was undertaken for peer reviewed, English language articles published from 2002–2022 using non-Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms including ‘rural’, ‘remote’, ‘pharmacy’, ‘pharmacist’, ‘employer’, ‘manager’, ‘workforce’ and ‘practice’, with pharmacy-specific filters applied using databases MEDLINE/EBSCOhost, PudMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals). The themes identified were tabulated and analysed.

Key findings

A large number of themes were identified, and much of the literature focused on the perspectives of employees. The most commonly identified themes in the 12 studies included ‘rural origin or background/initial training’, ‘professional relationship with other health professionals’, and ‘lifestyle/lifestyle enabled by cost of housing and living’. Some previously highly regarded predictors such as ‘rural origin’ were less common.

Conclusion

Recent studies suggest that positive experiences during rural clinical placements and initial employment after undergraduate study are likely to be statistically impactful. Only few themes were shared between employees and employers. The existing literature is heavily skewed towards the views of prospective employees, while relatively little regarding the views of employers. Further, original research from an employer's point of view, especially with regards to the challenges they face and any incentives they offer in attracting a pharmacist workforce to rural and regional areas, is needed.

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全面了解：对雇主和雇员来说，农村药房劳动力的推动因素和障碍是什么？2002-2022年的文献综述

审查的目的：与其他卫生专业类似，澳大利亚药剂师在区域和农村地区的地理分布不均衡已得到充分记录。这一叙述审查的目的是确定工作人员征聘和保留的促成因素和障碍，并从未来雇主的角度确定文献中证据的程度。对2002-2022年发表的同行评审的英文文章进行了全面的文献检索，使用非医学主题标题（MeSH）术语，包括“农村”、“偏远”、“药房”、“药剂师”、“雇主”、“经理”、“劳动力”和“实践”，并使用数据库MEDLINE/EBSCOhost、PudMed、Scopus、ScienceDirect和DOAJ（开放获取期刊目录）对药物进行了特定筛选。将确定的主题制成表格并加以分析。主要发现确定了大量的主题，许多文献都集中在员工的观点上。在这12项研究中，最常见的主题包括“农村出身或背景/初始培训”、“与其他卫生专业人员的专业关系”和“住房和生活成本使生活方式/生活方式成为可能”。一些以前被高度重视的预测因素，如“农村血统”，不太常见。结论最近的研究表明，在农村临床实习和本科毕业后初次就业期间的积极经历可能具有统计影响。雇员和雇主之间只有很少的主题是相同的。现有的文献严重偏向于未来雇员的观点，而雇主的观点相对较少。此外，需要从雇主的角度进行原始研究，特别是关于他们面临的挑战以及他们为吸引药剂师劳动力到农村和地区提供的任何激励措施。

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来源期刊

Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research Health Professions-Pharmacy

CiteScore

1.60

自引率

9.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： The purpose of this document is to describe the structure, function and operations of the Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research, the official journal of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA). It is owned, published by and copyrighted to SHPA. However, the Journal is to some extent unique within SHPA in that it ‘…has complete editorial freedom in terms of content and is not under the direction of the Society or its Council in such matters…’. This statement, originally based on a Role Statement for the Editor-in-Chief 1993, is also based on the definition of ‘editorial independence’ from the World Association of Medical Editors and adopted by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.