Stress, Satisfaction, and Competency of Hospital Pharmacy Preceptors under the New Pharmacy Program in South Korea

Objective. To evaluate hospital pharmacy preceptors’ views of preceptorship and to explore the factors that might influence their stress and satisfaction after joining the newly implemented six-year pharmacy program in South Korea. Methods. A nationwide, cross-sectional, self-administered 47-item online survey was conducted for preceptors at hospital pharmacy practice sites in 2015. Results. Among 601 preceptors, 395 responded to the survey. They reported high stress and moderate role satisfaction and likelihood of continuing preceptorship. Workload was a major cause of stress and a barrier for continuing preceptorship, whereas improvement of professional knowledge and performance ability was considered the most important benefit and motivation of preceptorship. Monetary rewards were the most valuable incentive. Extra work hours used for precepting were a significant positive covariate for stress, while willingness to engage in preceptorship was a negative covariate for stress and positive covariate for satisfaction. Self-perceived assessments of preceptors’ competencies showed moderate performance. Following an Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA), passion for teaching students and being a professional role model were identified as items in need of improvement. Conclusion. This study investigated relevant issues associated with hospital pharmacy preceptors in South Korea under the country’s new experiential education program. The findings will help to enhance the quality of hospital pharmacy experiential education in countries that have implemented or are planning to implement a new pharmacy program.