Results of the Pharmaceutical Journal Salary and Satisfaction Survey 2018

The Pharmaceutical Journal Salary and Satisfaction Survey 2018 was sent to 1,999 pharmacy technicians. 236 responded, mostly from secondary care environments, and their responses suggested that their profession was assuming more responsibility, doing work with insufficient resources and not being adequately remunerated.
Just under 80% respondents said they have more or different responsibilities now than what was in their official job description, and 67% think they are not paid enough. 81% of respondents would still recommend the job of a pharmacy technician despite the fact that 50% have considered leaving the profession in the last 12 months, over 10% of them have taken time off work for stress, and nearly 18% report having been bullied by a colleague in the last 12 months.
President of the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK, Tess Fenn, said: “Being appreciated is crucial to increasing motivation and satisfaction as well as health and well-being. As workload pressures are set to continually increase due to the ageing population, polypharmacy, increased prescription volume, policy changes with expansion of roles and services, APTUK acknowledge that work-related stress is an issue of growing concern and a possible cause of individuals leaving their profession. Alongside of this, APTUK have continuously raised that there are not enough pharmacy technicians being trained to meet the current and future workforce demand and this is a significant concern. It is time for the profession to work together on real and tangible points to improve the working lives of pharmacy professionals.”