Depending on where you live, you may have noticed that the once predicted pharmacy shortage is a thing of the past.
For years pharmacy topped “best” career lists because of high wages and an even higher demand. This was largely due in part to the Pharmacy Manpower Project, Inc., which predicted shortfall of 157,000 needed pharmacists by 2020.
Since then, however, pharmacy schools have been popping up everywhere. This is great news for the end of a potential shortage, but bad news for the practice of pharmacy and pharmacy education, according to the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).
The two pharmacy association heavyweights combined their efforts to release a discussion paper about their concerns regarding how the rapid growth in pharmacy schools affects the quality of education.
The paper, “Concerns about the Accelerating Expansion of Pharmacy Education: Time for Reconsideration,” highlights major stumbling blocks in higher pharmacy education, which are of grave concern to the two organizations.
In particular the fact that before 1987 the number of pharmacy schools, which was 72, was relatively constant. As of July 2010, there are 115 U.S. based colleges and schools of pharmacy with accredited (full or candidate status) professional degree programs and five schools with pre-candidate status. An additional 20 schools have been identified where feasibility and exploration of new programs is underway.
The paper specifically notes that it is important to understand that many new schools have been created in private institutions and in some cases at for-profit institutions, and few in public institutions. More importantly, “ While some programs have been established that serve unique needs in previously unserved large geographic regions, some new programs have been established in states with multiple existing programs and in fact even within the same cities.”
This has not only led to an influx of new pharmacists entering the market, but also an “exacerbation of the already-serious faculty shortage” and a potential inability to meet pharmacy students’ educational needs, especially to provide experiential education, such as rotations.
In fact, faculty recruitment and retention is identified as one of the top issues and challenges of colleges and schools of pharmacy. A study used in the paper cited that in 2008-09, nearly half of vacant faculty positions (48.1 %) remained vacant because there were not enough qualified candidates, a slight increase from 2007-08 (47.4%).
This has also led a significant concerns about the availability of quality experiential rotation sites. Citing that many practitioners are “finding it difficult to comply with the requests from schools of pharmacy to handle student rotations and offer quality experiences for students.”
The paper also points out that while many colleges are seeking to expand the number of students in both introductory and advanced experiences at practice sites, several pharmacy organizations are advocating that all new graduates should complete a residency (at least in some practice environments), which have become increasingly competitive. In fact, in 2010, the number of unmatched residents exceeded 1,000.
According to Medical News Today, the ASHP and APhA are calling for stakeholder dialogue on workforce planning. Informed by these discussions, ASHP and APhA advocate that pharmacy educational and practitioner organizations should establish an ongoing process for jointly assessing the near-term and long-term workforce needs in pharmacy practice and how to best meet those needs.
The discussion paper can be found here.
Do you think there are too many pharmacy schools today? Are you experiencing a workforce surplus as a result in your area? Let us know your thoughts about this post in the comment box below.
pharmacist
April 1, 2011
yes too many pharmacits please do somthing about that ..our profession is over
Pharmacist NJ
May 18, 2011
This is going on my 7th month of unemployment
I have a Rph PharmD and over 20 years of experience
I am a single mom and realy getting quit scared about my financial vulnerbility
pharmacist south jersey
June 1, 2011
I have been unemployed for 7 months also what is going on in this profession I keep reading articles about what great money and jobs around where???Why arent you honest with the people who are going into pharmacy expect limited jobs and low salaries
PharmacyWeek
June 2, 2011
Sorry for the delay in responding to your comment. Without getting too deep with a response I am certainly available to discuss your personal situation with you to see if I can help. Your comment though goes right to heart of why we have started our free concierge/personal asst service. For more information please email me at kevin@pharmacyweek.com or call my cell at 210 872-6160.
I have been in the pharmacy employment business since 1981 so have witnessed many changes. We also help produce the largest salary survey in the country for pharmacy professionals and overall salaries are going up albeit at a slower pace. We are also seeing more job openings for pharmacy professionals and new areas of opportunity that did not exist previously. But like the economy there are economic headwinds coming from the housing crisis, high unemployment, etc. In my opinion healthcare in general and pharmacy specifically are holding up very well. And while there may not be positions right in your area I can tell you that we have over 800 current and open positions on our web site…and this is just a fraction of what is out there!
There are many factors attributable to your comment but probably the biggest factor is the nearly 40% increase in the number of new pharmacy schools (with more coming) in the last 10-15 years. This is putting thousands of additional pharmacists into the market every year and due to a slowing US economy you are not seeing a new Walgreens opening up a store every 16 hours like they once were. On the other end every 8 seconds a Baby Boomer turns 65 years old, 10K Boomers will turn 65 years old every day and this will continue for the next 19 years. These are staggering numbers and are just two stats. The problem is that Boomers are far healthier today so they are going to work longer thereby adding more pressure to the job market. I have one pharmacist we are working with who is 85 years old and still working! In my opinion the job market for pharmacy professionals is going to get better but it’s going to take a few years to get through some of these short-term issues. Again if you would like to discuss your personal situation please contact me at kevin@pharmacyweek.com or my cell at 210 872-6160. Thanks again and good luck to you!
Kapil Khambholja
June 2, 2011
Demand to supply ratio seems different in different geographic locations in US. Most of my students of friends get good job with reasonable salary. But it seems soon there would be saturation when new batch of graduates would come out. It is similar in many other nations. So we need honest, unbiased and realistic survey of current and future situation.
laura
August 1, 2012
I am sorry. But the job market for pharmacist are not going to get any better. We don’t get even our intern hired anymore as all positions are filled. The situation is not going to get any better.
Monty Kohn
May 12, 2013
The whole problem with Pharmacy Weeks explanation is that they forgot to factor in technology. Technology will further contract the job market for pharmacists. There are too many being produced and it will make jobs even more scarce. Don’t mean to scare people, but technology and information technology is going to make most pharmacists jobs obsolete in the next 20 years.