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Caleb E Rux, Frank P Paloucek, Jennie B Jarrett, The pursuit of sustainable excellence: A worthy challenge, but difficult for trainees, American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, Volume 79, Issue 17, 1 September 2022, Pages 1409–1410, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajhp/zxac160
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We thank the authors for their response and added contribution surrounding burnout in pharmacy residents and pharmacists as a profession. They emphasize the importance of good preceptorship in addressing stress and burnout in trainees and advocate for the pursuit of sustainable excellence to achieve professional success without being limited by burnout. The authors highlight key aspects surrounding the cause of burnout in pharmacists, but the fact remains: burnout and the approach to address it in pharmacy residents need to be evidence based, and such approaches are likely different than burnout interventions for the general pharmacist population.
In our initial letter, we highlighted the role of activities beyond patient care as a potential contributor to stress in pharmacy residents.1 We did not, however, advocate for the removal of all these activities such as quality improvement, research, and committee involvement. We agree that these are essential components of a residency program. Rather, we voiced concern regarding the burden of adding tasks aimed at addressing stress and burnout, eg, surveys or mandatory learning sessions. Smith et al2 identified burnout in practicing critical care pharmacists rather than residents at the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in May 2020, which dramatically altered the context for which activities outside of direct patient care appeared to be protective rather than detrimental. Additionally, these findings directly contrast with survey findings of increased odds of burnout with nonclinical activities, specifically in a postgraduate year 1 pharmacy resident population.3 As health professionals, utilizing an evidence-based approach is the gold standard. Yet, when it comes to burnout, platitudes and epithets seem to be driving this conversation, as noted in this letter. We challenge our profession to go beyond observational data and anecdotes to determine high-quality evidence for identifying and treating burnout through individual and organizational measures.
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