Some recent articles on the future of pharmacy and job prospect...

[oldstock]

I came across those articles and threads. Thought they are interesting and would like to share for people who are considering pharmacy as their choice of future study and profession.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/a-gathering-storm-is-looming-over-the-horizon.1037635/page-2

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/a-gathering-storm-is-looming-over-the-horizon.1037635/

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Chriskahn]

It still blows my mind how some people will move across the country for 4 years to get their PharmD but wont relocate in the same manner to gain experience. Not everyone is going to get lucky and land a job right out of school especially if there are competition from pharmacists with experience.

What a lot of students don't realize is that they need to have a plan. Get as much out of pharmacy school as possible. Get involved in leadership positions and network like crazy. The more impressive your resume the better. Have a financial plan just in case it takes you a year to land a job after graduation, especially if loans need to be paid off soon after. Don't spend 4 years in school doing the bare minimum just to get a degree. Plan to relocate if you have to. Its a lot better than complaining to strangers on forums about how hard it is to find a job and how broke you are.

Saturation problem or not there really is nothing you can do but prepare yourself for it. Or just give the doomsday prophets on here what they want and quit and find a new profession. Give them a better chance landing a job by lessening the competition.


So these are the 3 options students have plain and simple.

Option 1: cry and complain
Option 2: find some other profession
Option 3: prepare yourself as best as you can

These saturation threads are getting really old. The same handful of pharmacist or current students will tell you to avoid pharmacy like the plague. And they all sound like they hate their jobs and blame it all on the saturation.

 

[oldstock]

Well, I agree that we can prepare ourselves, relocate, be willing to work any pharmacy jobs available, any kind of hours, anywhere, etc and we can be employed.

But the fact is more and more schools will be opening and more and more pharmacy graduates are pumped out every year. The consequences are that future jobs are going harder to find and future wage / salary would have no where to go but down.

We can choose to "prepare as best as you can and work and network harder blah blah". Even if you are having a good pharmacist now and think you are not affected by this "saturated" problem, you are lying to yourself by having your head in the sand and refuse to admit we are really having a problem. Wait until the new dogs come after you. They are hungrier, more aggressive, and willing to kill for just a tiny piece of meat.

I am posting those links to raise awareness so that people who are choosing to pursue pharmacy fully know what they choose to get into. Also, I would hope that current pharmacists, pharmacy and pre-pharmacy students would get more involved in their pharmacy organizations and work together to protect the profession and their professional interests. Because if you don't, nobody else will do anything for you and the future is that you might have a pharmacist job alright but crappy hours, crappy locations, and sh*tty pay when there are 300+ schools are pumping out like 50,000+ pharmacists a year

It still blows my mind how some people will move across the country for 4 years to get their PharmD but wont relocate in the same manner to gain experience. Not everyone is going to get lucky and land a job right out of school especially if there are competition from pharmacists with experience.

What a lot of students don't realize is that they need to have a plan. Get as much out of pharmacy school as possible. Get involved in leadership positions and network like crazy. The more impressive your resume the better. Have a financial plan just in case it takes you a year to land a job after graduation, especially if loans need to be paid off soon after. Don't spend 4 years in school doing the bare minimum just to get a degree. Plan to relocate if you have to. Its a lot better than complaining to strangers on forums about how hard it is to find a job and how broke you are.

Saturation problem or not there really is nothing you can do but prepare yourself for it. Or just give the doomsday prophets on here what they want and quit and find a new profession. Give them a better chance landing a job by lessening the competition.


So these are the 3 options students have plain and simple.

Option 1: cry and complain
Option 2: find some other profession
Option 3: prepare yourself as best as you can

These saturation threads are getting really old. The same handful of pharmacist or current students will tell you to avoid pharmacy like the plague. And they all sound like they hate their jobs and blame it all on the saturation.

 

[Chriskahn]

Well, I agree that we can prepare ourselves, relocate, be willing to work any pharmacy jobs available, any kind of hours, anywhere, etc and we can be employed.

But the fact is more and more schools will be opening and more and more pharmacy graduates are pumped out every year. The consequences are that future jobs are going harder to find and future wage / salary would have no where to go but down.

We can choose to "prepare as best as you can and work and network harder blah blah". Even if you are having a good pharmacist now and think you are not affected by this "saturated" problem, you are lying to yourself by having your head in the sand and refuse to admit we are really having a problem. Wait until the new dogs come after you. They are hungrier, more aggressive, and willing to kill for just a tiny piece of meat.

I am posting those links to raise awareness so that people who are choosing to pursue pharmacy fully know what they choose to get into. Also, I would hope that current pharmacists, pharmacy and pre-pharmacy students would get more involved in their pharmacy organizations and work together to protect the profession and their professional interests. Because if you don't, nobody else will do anything for you and the future is that you might have a pharmacist job alright but crappy hours, crappy locations, and sh*tty pay when there are 300+ schools are pumping out like 50,000+ pharmacists a year

I'm sure everyone on SDN is well aware. There has been like 20 threads on the subject of saturation. Props to you for trying to get everyone involved to fix the issue but I don't think anything can be done. They are not going to demolish the new schools that are accepting anyone and everyone.

Like I said. You can choose to prepare and network harder blah blah,or choose to cry and complain, or choose another profession. I choose the blah blah option.

At this rate its probably easier just to join with the doomsday guys and scare away future pre-pharm students.

 

[oldstock]

I'm sure everyone on SDN is well aware. There has been like 20 threads on the subject of saturation. Props to you for trying to get everyone involved to fix the issue but I don't think anything can be done. They are not going to demolish the new schools that are accepting anyone and everyone.

Like I said. You can choose to prepare and network harder blah blah,or choose to cry and complain, or choose another profession. I choose the blah blah option.

At this rate its probably easier just to join with the doomsday guys and scare away future pre-pharm students.

I am not doom-and-gloom type of person. I am actually trying to be well aware of the situation I am in and working for a solution. I am not trying to blindfold myself to pretend that the problem is not there.

Of course we all have to work harder and prepare ourselves for the ever-more increasing competition but then again we only can do so much up to a point. I do think that something can really be done regarding the supply side of pharmacy. We only need to get together and not only worry about our own self. Power is in the number bro

Regarding what you said about everyone on SDN is well aware, well if you have read some recent threads / postings, you could not believe that many people still do not have any idea what they are heading in to. Some asked or posted things that made me scratching my head and wondering if they just landed on earth from the moon

 

[DruggieDoRight]

Guys, oldstock is right. It's time to close up shop, pull in the reigns and bend over for PHARMAGEDDON!

 

[vasoolraja]

http://www.healthtalk.umn.edu/2013/12/06/pharmacy-schools-arent-graduating-many/

 

[oldstock]

http://www.healthtalk.umn.edu/2013/12/06/pharmacy-schools-arent-graduating-many/

"The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ projections put 45 percent of pharmacy grads on-pace to outrun employment demands for the next seven years."

yet,

“Included in Schommer’s reserve of counterpoints to the claim that too many students are graduating:

• More graduates then ever are part-time workers, changing what the number of pharmacists graduating means in real terms.
• Two-thirds of pharmacy school graduates are female, resulting in fewer hours worked during childbearing years.
• While pharmacists educated in the 1960s and 70s are exiting the workforce at slower than expected rates, they still are exiting. Schommer foresees new Pharm.D.-trained graduates entering the workplace as ready to interact with medical institutes and hospitals in ways their precursors did not.
• While pharmacy technicians or even machines are expected to dispense more and more medications in the future, the need for medication experts won’t shrink anytime soon as the health needs of America continue to expand.
• New ways to improve medication use with the guidance of an expert continue to spring up. Pharmacy graduates are increasingly working with patients because of more pay-for-performance health insurance plans – an area they were infrequently present in previously. The cost-effective and health-results-oriented pharmacist to patient call center is also an area of previously unforeseen growth.

"We know we’re developing a new practice capacity right now,” said Schommer. “Let’s use it to improve health care by avoiding unnecessary waste and cost in health systems.”

Schommer = B.S. and he knows it !!

 

[DruggieDoRight]

Guys, the machines are coming to take our jobs. Soon artificial intelligence combined with graduates from DeVry's PharmD program (recently accredited) will create the superpharmacist elmininating all further need of future pharmacist positions.

Pharmapocalypse is coming.

Here's what I believe, and I probably believe this because I'm still a naive student and overly optomistic. If you work hard in this profession, you can make the dream happen. You have to be in it for more than just the paycheck though. In my experience, nobody is going to hand you a job just because you feel entitled to it. It's something you have to actively pursue.

We'll see what happens though, I'm probably just some stary eyed noob at this point.

 

[Mur7ay]

It still blows my mind how some people will move across the country for 4 years to get their PharmD but wont relocate in the same manner to gain experience. Not everyone is going to get lucky and land a job right out of school especially if there are competition from pharmacists with experience.

What a lot of students don't realize is that they need to have a plan. Get as much out of pharmacy school as possible. Get involved in leadership positions and network like crazy. The more impressive your resume the better. Have a financial plan just in case it takes you a year to land a job after graduation, especially if loans need to be paid off soon after. Don't spend 4 years in school doing the bare minimum just to get a degree. Plan to relocate if you have to. Its a lot better than complaining to strangers on forums about how hard it is to find a job and how broke you are.

Saturation problem or not there really is nothing you can do but prepare yourself for it. Or just give the doomsday prophets on here what they want and quit and find a new profession. Give them a better chance landing a job by lessening the competition.


So these are the 3 options students have plain and simple.

Option 1: cry and complain
Option 2: find some other profession
Option 3: prepare yourself as best as you can

These saturation threads are getting really old. The same handful of pharmacist or current students will tell you to avoid pharmacy like the plague. And they all sound like they hate their jobs and blame it all on the saturation.

They are getting very old. I avoid getting on here anymore