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Daniel Arendt, Jaclyn Boyle, Opportunity cost, American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, Volume 79, Issue 3, 1 February 2022, Pages 127–128, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajhp/zxab371
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We thank Drs. Rux, Paloucek, and Jarrett for their letter regarding the potential cost of inappropriately addressing stress and burnout in pharmacy residents. We concur that the strategies utilized to address burnout must not compromise the educational experience of residency training or lead to additional stress in this at-risk population. Although the exact prevalence of burnout among pharmacists and pharmacy residents varies between studies, the importance of addressing pharmacy resident burnout has been widely acknowledged and has been incorporated into the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) accreditation standards for postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) programs.1 Numerous other pharmacy organizations have partnered with the National Academy of Medicine in support of the Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience, a network of over 200 organizations committed to reversing trends in clinician burnout. A key organizational strategy of this collaborative is obtaining accurate measures of burnout within the workforce. To measure burnout in medical professionals, the collaborative recommends using validated tools such as the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) for medical personnel as a survey instrument to measure burnout in US physicians, as well as residents and fellows.2 Measuring burnout in our trainees using the MBI-HSS is not without risk. As noted in our original report, the data collected within this monitoring tool is inherently sensitive; it is therefore imperative that the parameters around how this data will be used is made clear to the residents. Additionally, residents should be assured that the data will not be used in a punitive fashion. In addition to maintaining confidentiality, survey burden must be considered when implementing a burnout monitoring strategy. Both the frequency and type of survey assessment used to monitor burnout should be adjusted and determined based on the needs of the program, the cost of the survey, and the time burden associated with the survey.
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