In a 91-page report, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) confirmed what practitioners have known for the past few years: The profession is realizing an acute pharmacist shortage, and it is expected to persist for some time.
Let's see, a few months back, a company that wouldn't spring to replace burnt-out light bulbs in it's stores offered me $30,000 not to quit. Yet somehow the production of a 91 page report by the federal government was necessary to let people know there is a shortage of pharmacists. I can only dream of the day when we have a similar shortage of pinhead desk jockeys running up the national debt.
My favorite part of the story was this line:
Despite the possible role of the all-PharmD degree program in this shortage......
Um....... possible role? A few years ago, the 5 year Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy degree was phased out in favor of a mandatory 6 year Doctor of Pharmacy. This article seems to think that adding an extra year of school, along with another ten thousand dollars or so of student loan debt, might.....just might, have something to do with the worsening of the pharmacist shortage.
My God, they really could be on to something.
The old, the sick, and the addicted are not to worry however, as the leaders of the profession are solving the problem in the exact same way they solved the exact same shortage in the 90's. From the trade magazine Drug Topics:
Even as pharmacists are still divided on whether the profession should have moved to the Pharm.D. degree, there are some industry insiders who believe that an eight-year entry-level degree is in the offing. Fueling this belief is the fact that a majority of students today enter pharmacy schools with several years of undergraduate education and many expect that a prior B.S. (or B.A.) degree will be a requirement in another 10 years.
Hell yeah. Personally I think they shouldn't let anyone work behind a pharmacy counter who doesn't have a full blown degree in medicine with a minor in dentistry, that's what I think. I bet if you made them go to school for 20 years, there would be more pharmacists than you could shake a stick at. Of course anyone currently with a pharmacy license should be grandfathered, but a kid starting in the profession today really needs to have put in a 2 year residency in cardiac surgery, and to have written a hundred page thesis on a previously unknown characteristic of medieval Scottish literature. That will solve the pharmacist shortage.
In the meantime, giant corpo-pharmacy chains, who value drug knowledge above all else in their hiring decisions, should continue to bring wheelbarrows full of cash to my feet in order to convince me to work for them. Right up until the last light bulb burns out baby.
4 comments:
Ok how do I fake a degree in pharmacy man?
I can confirm from a couple local schools, that there is talk and chatter of going to an 8 year program. I am not totaly against it, as for someday I would like to own a second home and a yacht.
Actually there romius, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure no one has ever asked to see my actual degree, or my license for that matter. So I can't help but wonder if there isn't some way you can carefully avoid actually saying you are a licensed pharmacist when you apply for work.
They have asked to see my social security card however, so make sure you have at least a good forgery of one of those. Good luck.
Well maybe with the 20 yr pharmacy degree, you would have known the answers to that lovely woman who had questions about deer, and hwy 42. It could happen...right?
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