Shortage = bull****?

[badxmojo]

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I was just talking to a professor at the university yesterday and he told me that the pharmacist shortage was bull**** that it was completetly overdramatized. he said the retail chains close and open stores everyday and that if the pharmacist shortage got to the point where the stores were really stuggling the big chains would merely close down some stores. what do you guys think about this?

 

[Brill]

What was the increase in salaries all about (and sign on bonuses, car leases, etc.)? The plethora of job listings? Longer hours due to lack of staff? Congressional studies citing a severe shortage?

I think one could make the argument that the shortage isn't as severe now as it was a year or two ago, but to say one never really existed doesn't seem quite accurate to me.

 

[GravyRPH]

Is their a shortage? Yes.

But, your professor is right in a way. The general managers/district managers etc. aren't too fussed because it means they can get away with having one pharmacist fill 500 scripts because there is no one else to help. Normally, they would have to pay 3 pharmacists to do that. Cha-ching. It makes their wage numbers look stupendous!

As long as they can find one body to be there then they don't care. I have worked in a region where there was HUGE shortage and whenever the idea of closing a store was brought up by the store manager it was quickly shot down. So we chugged away with short staffing and fly by night pharmacists until I got too scared and burnt out.

The retail chains are having no problems staffing new stores because they offer these huge sign on bonuses that always get a few people to jump ship, but that leaves the place they left in dite straits. Its just a vicious circle. I don't understand how if "retail chains close stores everyday" would back up his point? That seems to show there is a shortage or they wouldnt have to close them. I doubt its because they aren't making money.

I would take anything a professor says that doesn't work in the "real world" about working with a grain of salt. Sure, listen to his aminoglycoside pharmaokinetic analysis, but I'd pass on his opinions of the opportunities for a clinical retail pharmacy.

 

[Triangulation]

Your prof is high as a kite. I have a DM at Wag's now who's trying to keep me in the system, and I haven't even started pharm school yet. He's detailed how much he allocates to finding quality pharmacists. I quit and he called to tell me that I'm welcome back as an intern and that i'd remain in the system for a year. Ask any tech or pharmacist working in retail; the minute a pharmacist quits or switches shifts they're in hysterics trying to fill the gap. It's almost a self-perpetuating shortage even w/o the increase in scripts and aging pop bc retail does have a burnout rate.

I will say that nothing's guaranteed here. If you're good, there's always gonna be a spot. Just graduating w/a pharmD doesn't guarantee a chill lifestyle with cush income. You gotta be working both in school and after if need be. Most of the cool stories I know of in pharmacy were peeps that built their careers over many years. Working extra days in a hospital, doing the fellowship or residency. A lot had three different jobs trying to keep different pots boiling. You gotta be willing to do that. Sounds bad, but if you want your ideal job you gotta work at it, and hey that's still not even close to the hours that a lot of these MD residents are gonna have to pull (100 hr weeks? no thanks.)

 

[badxmojo]

yeah i was a bit skeptical about what the prof was saying part of me thinks he told me that cause he wanted to point my intrest towards research/PHD since that was his field.