Well I've wanted to become a pharmacist for quite a while now and now the profession seems to have a unpromising future. I've read that with all the pharmacy school openings, the laws of supply and demand will cause alot of competition, making finding a job as a pharmacist similar to finding a job with a law degree.
Not only that, socialized medicine may substantially drop the salary of pharmacists.
Are these things true??? I'm not into pharmacy for the money but I want to make sure it's worth going into eight years of debt.
I really hope someone can make my doubts go away about becoming a pharmacist. 🙂
The doom and gloom is mostly due to large amount of schools opening in the last few years which is not limited to pharmacy but also other fields. However if you intern at a pharmacy in retail or hospital, chances are good that you will have a job when you come out. That cannot be said about law...
In terms of salary dropping due to socialized pharmacy, that is not true. Socialized pharmacy will lead to more prescriptions for us in addition to increased management roles for pharmacists. At the same time, our reembursements are already at an all time low meaning it is impossible for them to cut it even more. You really cant get lower than 90 days supply of most medications for 10 dollars at any chain pharmacy.
With that said, a pharmacist salary also comes from the front store which gives us a buffers unlike other health professionals. While hospitals are on hiring freezes due to the economy and a new president being in office, profits at retail stores have never been higher. CVS went from rank 24 to 16 in Fortune top 500 companies. If my district alone was a company, we would beat out companies like Visa, Hasbro, etc. Guess where other pharmacies rank... Walmart is 2nd, Cardinal is 18th, United is 21st, Kroger is 22nd, Costco is 24th, Walgreen is 36th, etc. You as a pharmacist will be the MAIN employee of these companies if not part of a really crucial team. Besides a few, you are responsible for bringing in almost 65-95 percent of the companies revenue. You are equivalent to lawyers in law firms, investment bankers in banks, etc.
Even for hospitals, remember that as a pharmacist, you are there to
save money. When you catch an interaction no matter how little it is, you are preventing the physician and the hospital from being sued millions. By optimizing pharmcotherapy (regardless of how bs it is...), you are saving drug costs, reducing bedtime of patients, fighting against superbugs, etc.
Hence chances of you coming out with a job is pretty good provided you study hard, intern at a chain and hospital, and be a hard worker.
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