Mindset and team communication in pharmacists: Examination of pharmacist's self-views

Abstract

Objectives: Pharmacists provide care in a complex adaptive system, which requires action and teamwork to address unexpected outcomes. We assessed practicing pharmacists' self-views of growth mindset and team communication across multiple practice settings.

Design: The validated Growth Mindset and Team Communication (GMTC) tool, a multicomponent quantitative and qualitative survey instrument was used to conduct a descriptive study of pharmacist self views.

Setting and participants: Survey instrument was distributed electronically to all licensed North Carolina pharmacists.

Outcome measures: The survey consisted of 4 sections: (1) growth mindset self-evaluation (14 questions), (2) team communication self-evaluation (13 questions), (3) description of previous teamwork experience (1 question), and (4) demographics (8 questions). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and responses to the open-ended question were assessed using qualitative content analysis.

Results: A total of 507 pharmacists participated in the survey. Participants reported primary practice settings, 42.1% in community, 38.9% in health system, and 17.3% in other settings, and 52.1% reported more than 20 years' total pharmacy experience. The total GMTC scale average score was 81.9 ± 7.9 out of 108 possible points. The growth mindset subscale indicated an overall average score of 43.5 ± 4.4 out of 56 possible points The team communication subscale indicated an overall average score of 38.3 ± 5.2 out of 52 possible points. The self-view of a growth mindset was not affected by years of pharmacy experience or primary practice site, but additional teamwork credentials were positively correlated with the overall GMTC score driven by the team communication subscale.

Conclusions: A growth mindset is prevalent among experienced pharmacists from multiple practice settings. Pharmacists recognize teamwork as an essential work element and rate their team communication skills highly.