Poor mental health, vaccination reluctance felt by pharmacists during pandemic

Pharmacists have experienced worse mental well-being and a lack of willingness to vaccinate patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports a study.

Researchers administered an electronic survey to a convenient sample of practicing pharmacists working in the states of Alabama, Tennessee, and Texas, US. The 33-item survey explored the participants’ beliefs about the impact of the pandemic on their mental health, perceptions of safety in vaccine administration, and willingness to vaccinate.

A 5-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5), was used to assess responses. Researchers sent a recruitment email with the survey link to pharmacists, with occasional reminders over a period of 4 weeks. They evaluated the participants’ responses using descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis.

In total, 387 responses were included in the analysis, with an estimated response rate of 3.93 percent. Of the respondents, 65 percent were women, and 28 percent had 6 to 10 years of practice experience.

Participants, in general, believed that the pandemic made their mental health worse, with more women reporting a more negative mental well-being than men (p<0.001). Pharmacists also reported having less time during workflow to don personal protective equipment (p=0.0074) than before the pandemic.

In addition, participants felt a decrease in their willingness to vaccinate adult patients during the pandemic (p<0.0001), driven by concerns about contracting COVID-19 from giving vaccinations (p<0.0001).

“Future research and initiatives that focus on improving vaccination rates should also consider pharmacists’ concerns and well-being,” the researchers said.