Title: On the demand for nursing labour in hospital pharmacies

Authors: Sean M. Murphy; Daniel L. Friesner; Robert Rosenman

Addresses: Department of Health Policy and Administration, Washington State University, P.O. Box 1495, Spokane, WA 99210-1495, USA ' Department of Pharmacy Practice, North Dakota State University, P.O. Box 6050, Fargo, ND 58108-6050, USA ' School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, P.O. Box 646210, Pullman, WA 99164-6210, USA

Abstract: One component of hospital production that has received little attention is that of the generalist nurse in the pharmacy. After developing a theoretical model characterising pharmacy nursing demand, we identify and explore two major questions of interest. The first pertains to which factors influence the likelihood that a hospital will choose to allocate generalist nurses to the pharmacy. The second asks, among hospitals that employ generalist nurses in the pharmacy (while simultaneously controlling for those that do not), what factors affect the quantity of nursing FTEs used. We find that the determinants for both decisions are quite similar. Overall, a greater service distribution seems to have a positive impact on pharmacy nursing demand, as does an older patient population. Community characteristics proxies, such as being located in a rural area and the proportion of outpatients insured by Medicaid, appear to negatively affect the quantity of nurses employed in the pharmacy.

Keywords: hospital pharmacies; pharmacy nursing demand; hospital production; service distribution; rural hospitals; generalist nurses; healthcare management; patient population; outpatients; medical insurance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSEM.2013.054924

International Journal of Services, Economics and Management, 2013 Vol.5 No.3, pp.179 - 202

Received: 08 Sep 2012
Accepted: 24 Nov 2012
Published online: 30 Apr 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article