Where's my BMW?

According to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), as of July 2020, there are 141 accredited colleges of pharmacy in the United States.  As a result, some 14,000+ new pharmacists are being rolled out into the workforce every year looking for jobs.  While it is great to have a fresh supply of new pharmacists each year, the number of available job openings is struggling to keep up.  In the early 2000s, pharmacists were a hot commodity in an era where the pharmacist demand far exceeded the supply.  Factors such as an aging population, better detections of chronic, treatable illnesses, and an ever increasing volume of prescriptions (including the implementation of Medicare Part D in 2006) all contributed to a rising demand in pharmacists.  The need was so great that some hospitals and pharmacies offered significant signing bonuses, like getting a new BMW (born in the wrong generation I suppose), to entice pharmacists to work for them.  At one point, Walgreens was opening one new pharmacy almost every 17 hours.

However, as the supply and demand model predicts, the “economy” of pharmacists will eventually tip the other direction and an increase in the number of pharmacists will rise to meet the demand.  This can be seen by the almost doubling of accredited colleges of pharmacy in the US over the past 20 years alone.  Additionally, advances in technology and utilizing more pharmacy technicians are impacting the role that pharmacists play in healthcare.  With the rollout of Amazon’s Pharmacy and the rise of mail order pharmacies, the retail/community sector is feeling the pressure.  In fact, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projected outlook for pharmacists predicts growth in all other major sectors of pharmacy except for retail by 2028.  This is significant because community pharmacies continue to employ the majority of pharmacists, a fact that may seem surprising since most University of Michigan pharmacy graduates go the residency route.

So now what?  We can work to create new positions and roles for pharmacists to fill to help offset the job losses and new recruits into the workforce.  Consequently, various law and regulation changes have expanded the scope of pharmacy involving MTMs, immunizations, and collaborative practice agreements.  Additionally, the number of residency positions, both PGY1 and PGY2, has increased over the years; however, the number of residency applicants still overwhelms the number of openings.  Many hospitals and health systems are now requiring, or at the very least highly encourage, residency experience for clinical positions.  This certainly contributes to the competitiveness surrounding applying to residencies.  Going forward, we need to continue to advocate for pharmacy as an important and necessary profession in healthcare.  And until Skynet and artificial intelligence takes over, pharmacists will continue to be required to manage medication needs and verify drug orders.