The Australian Pharmacy Leaders Forum (APLF), which was hosted by the Australian Pharmacy Council (APC) and took place in Canberra this week, has affirmed its commitment to “attracting, engaging, and retaining a pharmacy workforce that is equipped to meet Australia’s evolving health needs”.
One of the key themes to emerge from the event was the increasing number of health professionals contemplating leaving the field due to burnout, with heavy workloads and inadequate rest affecting many pharmacists (PD 15 May).
This highlighted the need to equip the workforce to handle psychosocial challenges and ensure access to both individual and organisational resources to manage pressures, mitigate burnout, and create safe, supportive workplaces.
Presenters, including keynote speaker Professor Zubin Austin (pictured) from the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, stressed the importance of looking beyond the individual to build resilient workplaces.
“What we discovered was that resilience had almost nothing to do with individual or personal psychology, and almost everything to do with management decisions,” Professor Austin told attendees.
“Well-intentioned ideas around personal responsibility for being resilient is far less impactful than practical management decisions around creating safe and resilient workplaces,” he explained.
Expanded scope of practice to increase the sense of personal accomplishment and job satisfaction, as well as providing more primary care opportunities to students, were also put forward as ways to attract and retain pharmacists.
Another key theme was the importance of collaboration, with speakers citing research showing that “siloed approaches and professional hierarchies were counterproductive”.
“We all left this event enthused about the strong level of engagement and we reaffirm our commitment to collaborate with the APLF and the broader sector to address these challenges, support our frontline pharmacists, and drive meaningful progress,” said APLF Chair Professor Joe Tucci.
“I trust this marks the beginning of many more valuable discussions in this space, and we look forward to further leading this important conversation”, he concluded. KB
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