Understanding COVID-19-related Burnout in Qatar’s Community Pharmacists using the Job Demands-Resources Theory

Community pharmacists are one of the most accessible front-liners against the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst playing a vital role in medication supply and patient education, exposure to pandemic demands and prolonged stressors such as risk of infection increases their risk of burnout. Using the Job Demands-Resources theory, this research aims to identify factors affecting community pharmacists’ COVID-19-related burnout, their coping strategies against it, and recommendations on interventions to mitigate it. This is a qualitative study in which Qatar community pharmacists, with informed consent, took part in semi-structured focus groups/interviews which were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using inductive/deductive analysis. Twelve themes emerged from six focus groups, six dyadic interviews and mini focus groups, and four individual interviews. The contributing factors to community pharmacist’ burnout were identified as practical job demands, and emotional demands such as fear of infection. However, government and workplace-specific resources, pharmacists’ personal characteristics such as resiliency and optimism, as well as implementation of coping strategies, reduced their stress and burnout. This is the first study to explore the contributing factors to community pharmacists’ COVID-19-related burnout using the job-demands resource model. In turn, individual, organizational, and national recommendations can be made to mitigate burnout in community pharmacists during the pandemic.