My thought is pure laziness on part of the students IMO and part of what you said: graduates do not want to move (or cannot move due to a disability or due to issues beyond their control) to find or keep their job. Having said that, It is not just a case of willingness to move somewhere else, but the ability to move somewhere else. Some individuals may have sick and ailing family members and prefer to be closer to home to take care of them. Others may be just lazy. It is not in our power to judge their circumstances.
Physicians may match into a residency and are not able to move for at least 3 years post-MD. If a couple's match were in place for pharmacy residencies, that would solve the emotional disconnect and possibly increase their willingness to move. Another proposed solution: have employers allow relocation payment for stellar new graduates (high-performers) who provided extraordinary service and otherwise could not afford to move.
In my case, my supports for the time being are too close to home to move out-of-state. There is no guarantee that such supports will be offered in another state or even in another country. Students (and pharmacists) are expected to take such risks (with money or not) and be comfortable with their own decisions (conscious or under stress). It is not thinking long and hard that is the issue, it is thinking longer and harder than the persons before you and further than those students who graduate after you.
The problem with the data presented is not the number of students matriculated into the schools every year or the number in comparison to the amount of opportunities achieved, but the method used to report the school's data. The number of students in each category is not included to make a clear comparison. Again, the percentages do not add up to 100%, increasing the ambiguity. One cannot tell who is employed, who is not, or how many; that lack of clarity and lack of transparency in reporting data (as well as strong feelings bias) are a few reasons stakeholders and professionals make poor decisions (such as open up more schools, not do well on rotations, lose out on opportunities, or do not use the opportunities they are given).
NABP data is available to the public and something anyone can Google if they choose. The option is there, but searching for the school data and critically reviewing school data is not encouraged. However, in practice, critically reviewing patient data and research articles is essential for pharmacy practice. Executives and employers need strong interpretation of clinical and economic data to make informed decisions; we as pharmacists gifted in such skills can meet and exceed the employer's demands (when we are in the right fit). The conflict of interest between schools and the real world is pervasive and never ends. The lack of clarity and transparency in addition to such conflicts of interest is why "the struggle is real." Every institution of higher learning has their own mission, every setting of pharmacy operates differently than the last, and each area within that setting varies in its operational practices. Consistency is not our friend, but it is something we strive for.
Our NAPLEX pass rates are all higher than the state average (FL), and 3-5% lower than the national average. However, our school had the enrollment capped at less than 100 students per class during the 2018 graduating classes and beyond; other schools in FL continue to either increase their numbers or remain at similar enrollment figures to their previous years. We were the only institution who capped student enrollment after a bunch of students raised the oversaturation issue to administration. In case I was not clear, our institution agreed to cap the PharmD student enrollment during the year 2014 and continued to do so. Despite the lower number of students, our scores reflect the quality of our training in a positive light versus a negative light. One of our colleagues even graduated with autism, a disability that prevents executive functioning skills, multitasking, and working with teams; this is hardly ever seen in pharmacy, a noteworthy accomplishment to be sure. Some individuals may have mixed feelings about this, but the accomplishment protects the integrity of the institution and the value of their PharmD. Despite these accomplishments by our institution, there is clearly lots of work to be done.
The real question is: who is going to do the work? The other question is why is our profession not doing a better job?
As a profession, we can do better and we know we can do better; we just don't! That is why we see what we see.
This change also makes us seem more valuable than we think we are.
