Pharmacy is a great career; you wouldn't be enrolled in this program if you didn't already think that. We get to work in many diverse, mentally stimulating, and rewarding environments. We could go on and on about that, but that is not the scope of this post. There are concerns about job outlook for pharmacists, and we will discuss how much credence should be given to them.
This document gives us some historical perspective on how rapidly pharmacy schools are opening. It also contains mounds of data regarding projections for supply and demand of pharmacist jobs. Don't worry, I don't expect you to read all 61 pages of it. The data show that in the year 2000, there were 82 accredited programs. In 2005, that number was 92. Today, we sit at 128, with more schools beginning the accreditation process.
Is the profession headed towards a critical mass? Obviously many variables come into play here, and to quote Gandalf: "Even the very wise cannot see all ends." But is there a cause for concern, and if so, how can we adjust ourselves to combat it?
43 comments:
It seems like me that the conclusions found in this report are actually pretty encouraging for pharmacy students. As medicine advances older members of society will likely live longer and pharmaceutical utilization per capita is almost assured to increase. While there is some concern in the number of pharmacy programs, it's my opinion that the individual student pharmacists will be able to garner employment post-graduation by the dedication and efficiency they display throughout their PharmD practical education experiences and countless network opportunities and internships they are afforded throughout their 4 years in school. If a licensed pharmacist can't get employed, I'd tend to put the responsibility on them, not their pharmacy program.
Demand for pharmacists has decreased greatly as more pharmacy schools open. This website shows the national pharmacist demand by state: http://www.pharmacymanpower.com/usstatemap.jsp. The website also shows trend date by state. In the past 10 years, North Carolina has had a decrease in the demand for pharmacist. In my opinion, I don’t think North Carolina needs another pharmacy school.
Years ago we always heard that pharmacists were in high demand and that jobs were available anywhere in the country. A pharmacist could essentially have their pick. I think a cap should be put on the number of pharmacy schools in this country. The profession needs to remain competitive and we need to protect ourselves against a saturated job market.
Looking through the work force document, all of the charts and numbers show the steady increase of pharmacists projected up to 2030. We have already seen that from 2000 to 2005 the number of pharmacy graduates increased from 7,300 to 9,100, respectively. These predictions for years 2020 and 2030 will most likely come true if some form of intervention is not put in place. The thought was that when the degree was changed into a doctorate program the number of applicants would decrease or level off, but this has just shown the opposite. So in my opinion a cap should be put on the number of pharmacy schools in the U.S. in order to slow down the increase of job saturation.
Page 9 along with the charts and graphs in the document clearly summarize the pharmacist over-supply problem in America. This will definitely be a cause of concern for graduating and current students as most will have to compete for the same slot. With this in mind, future pharmacists must have something that will make them stand out from the rest. By this, I mean they must have special skills or talents that would raise eye-brows from employers.
Can you speak more than one language? Do you have previous experience with robotic counting machines? Are you knowledgeable about different cultures and lifestyles? Are you certified to teach diabetes? Do you have training to give vaccinations? Think about it people! Do you have something special that would make your fellow peers be green with envy? And more importantly, what can you do now to give yourself that edge over others? Start thinking NOW before that interview, everyone!
Do you need more training in making compounding medications? What about taking some Vietnamese or Spanish classes? How about learning to fix software and hardware problems in a pharmacy environment? Ever thought about enrolling in communications and conflict resolution classes at the local community colleges? Even working in pharmacies in different countries might be an asset.
As a store owner, I would definitely want to hire someone who has as many skills and talents. After all, wouldn’t you want your money to go as far as possible? If you can relate to a multiple amount of people with kindness, respect and empathy, I will definitely hire you over someone who only cares about exchanging forty hours a week for $$$. If you can speak 2-3 languages, you absolutely have a big advantage over someone who doesn't. With everything else being equal, a pharmacist who has experience in fixing my robotic counting machine will be hired over his/her counterpart who never even touched one. You get the drift...
Exhibits 7 and 8 show how even pharmacy schools have to compete against each other by doing things to make them stand out from the rest. By introducing distance learning options, they will absolutely attract more students to their institutions than your regular pharmacy schools that require participants to physically be in the classroom. I like Wingate’s plan of having a satellite school at Hendersonville to give local students an opportunity to stay at home. If schools have to do this, students have to give more effort at differentiating themselves in order to remain competitive.
I agree with Stuart concerning the demand trend for Pharmacists as shown in the article that it is actually good for Pharmacists. However, with the increase in Pharmacy schools in the United States, I think this increase in demand will eventually disappear. I think that a cap should actually be placed on the number of pharmacy schools that can be opened in a state for a set number of years. This allows time for the trend to be re-evaluated and based on that the decision to open more schools can be revisited.
I rather think more Medical schools should be opened because that is what is needed now, but as far as Pharmacy schools are concerned, we have enough to cater for even the growing or elderly population.
....Vida O. Agyeman
Although the number of accredited Pharmacy schools has rapidly increased over the past ten years, and continues to do so, I do not feel like my job security will be effected. Although the number of pharmacy schools continues to rise, so does the demand for pharmacists. As we have talked about again and again, pharmacists scope of practice is increasing substantially. With those increasing roles comes with an increasing demand. Pharmacists are no longer solely responsible for dispensing medications. Because of this, I do not feel that my job security is in jeopardy.
According to this website: http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/rankings/the-25-best-jobs, the job market for pharmacists in 2012 looks good. I am not worried about saturation. I think the number of new drugs and the increase in the aging population will keep pharmacists in demand.
I agree that the increased demand of pharmacists will continue to grow over time and my job security will not be affected as much as I currently think it will. As the profession of pharmacy continues to expand and the roles of pharmacists become more than just dispensing, the future looks promising. As the population is growing older, the need for pharmacists will also grow. Over time, as the profession advances, more and more pharmacists will be needed to help with drug therapy and the health of society.
On page six of the main article the committee outlines its rationale for its supply baseline. They predict that pharmacy will increase by about 100 graduates a year or about one school. Given the increase in graduates over the last five years, even their extreme estimate values fall way short of the supply increase. I personally think pharmacy demand will balance itself out in the near future, certainly faster than estimated by many of these experts.
Jabon Efird
I think the job market for pharmacists looks good for the next several years. The population of senior citizens is growing more, and people are able to live longer with the technology we have today. However, with the steady rise in pharmacy schools, I believe that the job demand will eventually peak. I hope that this does not happen anytime soon.
-Curtis Austin
When I first started considering going to pharmacy school, all I heard from other people was how much demand there was for pharmacists. Now there are more and more pharmacy schools opening and the prospect of a great job market seem to be dwindling. However, there are factors that help the prospects of pharmacy. The nation is getting older and elderly people tend to be prescribed more medications than other age groups in the US. The tendency of our nation to change can also benefit pharmacy by potentially creating an expansion of the profession. Even if there was some job saturation, the expansion of the profession could help alleviate the added stress. All in all, I'm not too worried about the amount of job saturation. With all the pharmacies I see just driving up and down Hwy 74, I don't think job saturation will have any significant affects on our profession.
I believe my stance differs from many. I am not overly concerned about job saturation; however, I am concerned. The document posted makes a good point about the population is living longer due to advances in medicine. My concern here is if the population is living longer then will the pharmacist already working wait to take retirement. If one realized when they retired they were still able to get around great and they enjoyed doing lots of activities, these activities cost money; therefore, they may need to wait to take retirement in order to have enough money saved to take care of them self once they are out of practice. This thought may be far-fetched; however, I would rather need pharmacist and open schools as the need increases while monitoring the amount of graduating pharmacist to ensure a position upon graduation. Currently, it seems as though the demand is increasing and the amount of graduates is adequately increasing therefore there is no concern. However, I would rather students not be able to get in to a school of pharmacy then spend so much time, energy, and money and not have an opportunity to practice with this degree.
Jennifer Jones
My dad is a pharmacist, and growing up he always used to tell me I should go to pharmacy school because you could pretty much pick your hours and work anywhere you wanted. He was constantly being contacted by pharmacies in the area wanting him to work. Things are drastically different now, and it is a scary thought that most of us will have thousands of dollars in debt once we graduate and a difficult time finding a job. From what I hear, the Charlotte job market has become really saturated for pharmacists since Wingate has opened. However, I have also heard that more rural areas are still in need of pharmacists. It would be nice to be able to find a job easily once we graduate, be able to pick our hours, and be able to find a job close to home. Unfortunately, we may all end up working longer hours in places we don't particularly like. I'm hoping that it gets better or at least doesn't get worse, but I'm not sure if that will be the case in four years.
I think that there is a big concern over Job saturation in the market. Everyone wants to know that the investment of going to school and getting a degree will pay off by having a job. However, the point of pharmacy expanding into different areas and opportunities should be somewhat encouraging. There are so many new areas that allow pharmacists to do different things. These areas should help desaturate the current market a little as some people will not necessarily be interested in the tradition view of pharmacy whereas other people want this aspect of pharmacy
I agree that the increasing trend in pharmacy schools is reason for concern as far as saturating the pharmacy job market, but I also think that its just a trend that should be paralleled now by more residencies and jobs created for pharmacists. I believe this will happen, as the different generation bubbles in the population continue to age and live longer. I think that if the post graduate opportunities are not increased substantially, then school openings should be limited more.
I believe that it is a concern for all of us that are now in pharmacy school and studying to become future pharmacists. In the past there has always been a demand for pharmacists and it was a great profession to try and get into because you could find a job very easily. With this great demand for pharmacist more pharmacy schools were made and now this has led to a job saturation making it harder for pharmacy students such as ourselves to become employed. Pharmacy is still a great profession but it is a bit tougher to find a job, especially if you want to work in a certain area. I was born in Charlotte and I would love to live and work here the rest of my life but I understand that it will be a lot tougher to attain this job.
For students who strive to be a traditional pharmacist, I do believe they are in jeopardy of having too high job saturation and will have difficulty finding a job. However, I believe that the increasing number of elderly patients along with the increasing types of job opportunities for pharmacists will help to balance this high job saturation. Pharmacists may not be able to get the job they went into school expecting to end up with, but I do believe there are plenty of opportunities out there.
-Amy Miller
I think that the current job saturation in the pharmacy world is very alarming to current pharmacy students. We are paying a lot of money to go to school and get a degree that we assumed would lead to many job openings once we graduated. With the tremendous increase in the number of pharmacy schools and graduating students, getting a job in the pharmacy industry seems to be getting progressively harder. I believe that there should be a cap placed on pharmacy schools so that there are not so many students graduating at the same time. However, I do not think that this issue is so extreme that we will be without jobs when we get out of school. The career of pharmacy has such a wide variety of career options that we are sure to find something available.
My opinion on job saturation of our profession is split right down the middle. I realize that the number of pharmacy schools is growing at a pretty steady rate and that does mean more pharmacists, which can result in more difficulty finding a job. However, I also would like to note that retail pharmacies are growing quite rapidly. Nowadays you can’t go a mile in any big city without finding a CVS or Wallgreens. Also pharmacist’s score of practice is also expanding, there a now more jobs than ever that pharmacists can apply for instead of retail and the scope is still growing. Older pharmacists are also not wanting to retire, which is not helping this concern, they want to ride our their jobs for as long as possible, but can you blame them? The job does not require much physical activity and is very rewarding so who would want to retire? Overall, I am not too worried about the security of my future career; people will always need medicine or medical knowledge and pharmacists are still very important in society. I do think however, that if eventually the number of pharmacy schools begins to expand too rapidly there should be some sort of stipulation or regulation of the accreditation of schools to avoid schools from popping up everywhere.
When I first looked into pharmacy careers, the job security outlook was very comforting. Now I am concerned about the job saturation in pharmacy, but I don't think I will be unable to find a career when I graduate. Whether the career is in my desired city or in a more rural area, it is still a job. As Katelyn said, pharmacists are continually expanding our scope of practice. This will cause an increase in the demand of pharmacists in these particular areas. Also, as it stated in the article, population growth and increase in consumption per capita will ensure our job security. However, it is clear that the increase in pharmacy schools going to become a problem if it doesn't stop. The supply will become greater than the demand if this increase doesn't cease. Many people have mentioned putting a cap on the amount of pharmacy programs in the US. I think this is the appropriate thing to do to solve this problem as well.
Corrine Sharpe
Projections have been made to show that there will be an increased need for pharmacists in the very near future due to the growing numbers of retirees and geriatric population. With the increased in patient load, healthcare will require more working professionals at the forefront to meet the demands of patients and still provide the same quality care that is currently provided now. This, along with the new Obamacare plan, will increase patient access to healthcare creating an even higher demand for quality healthcare. The coincidental event of the rising numbers of pharmacy schools may be helpful to meet these future healthcare demands. Furthermore, the increase in the number of pharmacy schools display a strong interest in the field and can be used to advance the field by giving pharmacists more scope of practice other than just counseling and dispensing.
I think that it is common sense that if you open more pharmacy schools, and the job market stays constant, then we will soon have an excess of pharmacists with no jobs. However, as we have discussed a lot this semester, there seems to be a lot more opportunities emerging for pharmacy. As long as pharmacists continue to make progress and begin different roles within the health care systems, this increase of pharmacists would not be detrimental to the job market. However, if the number of graduates continue to increase more quickly than the job market expands, there could be issues for all of us.
I think we as pharmacy students should be somewhat concerned. There are more students than ever and there aren't many older pharmacists retiring. I don't think we will have a problem getting a job somewhere, but it may be difficult to find those jobs when we graduate. I certainly worry about it quite a bit, even though I know I have chosen a stable career.
I feel that even though a lot of pharmacy schools are opening there is still need for pharmacists. There are a lot of different opportunities that you have when getting a PharmD so I don't feel that everyone will go into community or hospital pharmacy. I am not worried about the job security because I feel that with all the different opportunities and new responsibilities that pharmacists have then there will be enough jobs for everyone.
Sarah Martin
With the growing amount of pharmacy schools, it comes with some concern that jobs will begin to be harder to find. At first glance, it is easy to become slightly worried. However,you must remember that pharmacy is heading in exciting directions. Although all of us may not find a job in a community pharmacy, there are plenty of other areas where your PharmD degree will be very useful.
-Brittany Rector
According to Dr. Supernaw’s presentation on the state of WUSOP yesterday, the number of pharmacists per capita appears to be slightly higher than population growth. However, the number of prescriptions per capita is increasing much faster than the population is growing, and therefore there is a great need for more pharmacists. Although the North Carolina job market for pharmacists is saturated in urban areas, like Charlotte and Raleigh, there are many rural counties that are in desperate need for pharmacists. New grads need to understand that they must be willing to move to where the jobs are. The healthcare industry is evolving into a more team based approach. This means that the pharmacy profession needs to evolve as well. Instead of worrying about job saturation, student pharmacists should focus on preparing for the future of the pharmacy profession.
Personally, job saturation worries me a lot. When we were applying for pharmacy school, we were told of all the opportunities available to us and of all the jobs that are available. Now though, there are tons of schools opening and we're hearing more and more than retail is where we'll "end up" so expanding the scope of practice seems necessary.
Though there was a great demand for pharmacists earlier in the decade, that demand has decreased dramatically. Upon learning of this decreased demand through my own job experience as a pharmacy technician, this caused me concern.. However, upon learning of the increasing career options that are becoming available to graduating pharmacists, I do not feel as much concern. I've also learned that networking well before graduation is crucial. If anything, no matter the level of demand for practicing pharmacists, networking seems to be one's best tool when it comes to securing a job, starting as early as possible.
Pharmacy demand has been decreasing compared to 10 years ago. In PharmCare class, we have discussed that demand for pharmacists has greatly decreased in many states; in Pen State, the supply is greater than the demand. Job saturation is a concern for graduating pharmacists now. The main factor contributing to job saturation is opening of many new pharmacy schools. I don't think job availabilities are keeping up with number of graduated pharmacists. I think this is time to limit new pharmacy schools and secure job openings for graduated pharmacists.
Diep Phan
It has become readily apparent that the job market for pharmacists is becoming more and more saturated. This is a simple supply and demand structure and since demand within the past 10 years has been extremely high people began to flood the market in search of an attainable high paying career. However, the paper did offer some pleasant news that the demand will stay increasing over the years. It noted the increasing age of the population and the extension of medicare part D. I also have noticed the advancing career opportunities of pharmacists and am hopeful that new job opportunities will open as well. As far as the supply side of things it was estimated that since pharmacy schools are increasing so will pharmacy graduates. I believe that jobs will be available upon graduation, however, some people may struggle in finding a job that adheres to the region or city in wish they wish to live.
-Nick Scaturo
Job security is never guaranteed no matter what your field of study is. There will always be schools and new possible employees. If one is concerned about job security focus on what you can control. Do your job, do it well, and you will be fine. We live in a free country for a reason. If someone wants to go to school who are we to stop them
It's respectable that universities are improving their systems by opening new schools and applying for accreditation, but in a field that is ever growing, shouldn't there be a limit to the number of schools that are passed? In NC alone, there are three pharmacy schools, all accepting around 100 students a year. Add another school in NC and that will only force recently graduated students to search and search for jobs, with no promise of actually getting the job. That's just locally. The most probable way to combat this issue is for students to move to where there is a demand for pharmacists. But lately, are there even areas such as this that exist? Nationally, there are so many pharmacy schools that are growing, accepting more students, and even more schools are opening. This is only adding to the stress of landing a job. Personally, I think that there should be a pause in accrediting schools for now, although I know that can't happen.
It seems that job saturation has been at the back of a lot of people's minds. Many of us entered pharmacy school believing wholeheartedly that when we complete our program, we will practically be guaranteed a job. However, with the massive flux of schools jumping on the accreditation wagon, there are more and more individuals entered pharmacy as a field. It doesn't seem very sensible for every school to offer a pharmacy program. At some point there needs to be a halt to schools becoming accredited. The last thing that any of us wants is to come out of a four year program and not be able to find a job.
There are so many different areas of pharmacy that there will always be a job doing something. I think the reason some pharmacists are not able to find the jobs they want is because they are not keeping all of their options open. If a pharmacist is not willing to move from their home town or not flexible on the job they will take, then yes it will be harder for them to find a job.
-Jessica Osteen
Pharmacy is a great profession to be in so it is not a surprise that more people are going to get their Pharm D degree. However, one must be somewhat concern with the issue of supply and demand. More schools opening and getting accredited means more pharmacists. As someone who is in pharmacy school, I can say that getting a job after all my hard work is a concern. I want to be able to easily get the job I want. The article predicted that by 2030 there would be about 12 thousand pharmacy graduates. The fact that we are basically at that number now shows that this is a popular and growing field. The demand for pharmacists may be somewhat high right now but as more pharmacy schools open the demand will obviously decrease. This will help to encourage students to get out and network early on in their pharmacy career. They more connections you make the more opportunity you have. I think the only way to solve this issue is to put a cap on how many pharmacy schools are accredited. There should be a certain number of pharmacy schools that are allowed to open each year for each state. This will give states more time to determine what states have more demand than others. The states that have the higher demand should be allowed to open up more school. This may cause students to attend a school in a different state but this is better than not having a demand for this field.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 25.4% increase in employment for pharmacists between 2010 and 2020, and the baby boomer population continues to retire.
I think the sharp increase in pharmacy schools and class size can be viewed as positives. New pharmacy schools make large initial investments to start their program. They may have investors who are also interested in the success of the school, so it would be in their best interest if there were incentive to join their program. I think the leaders of these schools are confident that there are positive outcomes for their students. Why would pharmacy schools be built if the incentives were lacking (besides money)?
I will continue to remain positive about the job outlook until there are convincing numbers or lower median salaries to tell me differently.
It is indisputable that the demand for pharmacists is being met more robustly than it once was. That being said, I do not believe there is any reason to be concerned with job saturation at this point in time. With immigration and other factors, the demand for pharmacists will remain high for years to come. On the other hand, the fact that dozens of additional pharmacy schools are being founded means that the number of pharmacists in the United States will increase vastly in years to come. If the scope of pharmacy practice could be expanded, the need for pharmacists would remain high and the role of the "pharmacist" would not become stagnant in an ever-changing health care system. Of course, at some point in time, there will need to be a cap placed on the amount of pharmacy schools in the United States so that pharmacy students do not come out of school and are unable to find work. If this were the case, there would be an abundance of extremely poor doctors who are unable to pay off student debt and are, for lack of a better word, penalized for pursuing greater endeavors in life.
"Caveat emptor" should be on everyone's mind when doing anything important like selecting what your future profession will be for the rest of your life. The same should be the case with opening up a new pharmacy school. Let everyone live and die freely with his/her decision.
On that note, I just don’t see what all this fuss is about with people wanting to be mini-dictators in their desire to limit the openings of new pharmacy schools. If entrepreneurs concluded that it is in their best interest to establish new institutions to train more future pharmacist then, so be it! Hopefully, they have done their due diligence to financially support their endeavor. No one should be telling them they have no right to do so in a free republic like America. Also, if these new schools will offer benefits that old ones do not, wouldn’t that be doing society as a whole a great service?
Its concerning to hear the news that we are 18 years ahead of schedule of where we should be in regards to the number of pharmD graduates. Whenever people I meet or see ask me what I am doing 'these days' and I say I am in pharmacy school, they respond with "OH you will always have a job"... and this goes to show that isn't necessarily the case. It definitely makes me nervous because as job opportunities are already at a low, we have four more years until we are ready to look for one.
The article showed an increase in demand for pharmacists. However, with the number of pharmacy school increasing and larger class size every year, I'm not sure if the demand for pharmacists remain the same in the next couple years when we are done with school. Also, with many schools still maintain the "traditional" curriculum, the number of graduates would increase but hopefully we are moving away from the "tradition" profession and steer towards many different unique things, such as MTM, pharmacogenomics, and etc.
-Tammy Pham
I think that they should stop opening more schools. I also think that if our profession embraces health care management instead of leaning more toward the traditional role then we will be okay. More people are one long term treatments and do not understand them. Also physicians seem to not have time to do any patient monitoring/management. The public does not understand most of anything about their health. So, more pharmacists are needed to fill in these gaps.
-Yelena Panko
Although the field is becoming more competitive, I am not too concerned about finding a job in the future. As the demand for pharmacists decrease, this means we need to improve our credentials throughout our four years in pharmacy school to be unique and gain more experiences to help us land employment opportunities in the future. These experiences include obtaining internships and beginning to improve our network in the pharmacy field in order to get ourselves ahead. Further, I agree with Yelena. We have a numerous amount of pharmacy schools in place, some already accredited and some in the process of being accredited, and there is no need for more. Instead, each pharmacy school should improve their program and find ways to make their program unique and specific that will allow students to excel even more in the pharmacy field upon graduation.
-Therese Nguyen
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