The Role of Educators in Supporting the Mental Wellbeing of Postgraduate Pharmacist Distance Learners

Abstract

Front-line healthcare professionals have experienced rapid changes to workload and pressures during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in anxiety, depression and mental health stressors. For working professionals engaged in pharmacy postgraduate distance learning, access to educators was seen as a means to relay some of these stories and offload the stress caused by these unprecedented circumstances. The postgraduate pharmacy education team at De Montfort University felt a moral responsibility to provide extra support and extended their roles towards offering greater wellbeing support. In this commentary we detail the emergence of this new role and offer insights into how this was fashioned and its significance for catering to the mental health needs of pharmacists. This role has largely gone undetected and research is needed into the acceptability and feasibility of such a model and its plausibility and sustainability in the long term.