By
Richard Clark
Arizona Daily Wildcat
National shortage opens up variety of career opportunities
A national shortage of pharmacists is resulting in changes to the way UA pharmacology students are taught and the way they are looking at their careers.
There are only 200,000 pharmacists to fill the three billion prescriptions a year for people who live in the United States, said Theodore Tong, assistant dean of the UA College of Pharmacy.
The number of prescriptions is expected to grow to more than five billion in the next five years. Nationwide, only 8,000 new students graduate from pharmacology programs each year, and major drugstore chains need more than 3,000 new pharmacists a year, Tong added.
Students, on the other hand, see the shortage as an opportunity after they graduate.
Erik Mogalian, a first-year pharmacology student, said that even in the worst-case scenario students will still have a job.
"You can change your career focus if you want, and you're still good to go," Mogalian said. "It's nice to know you have the ability to do what you want to, you get to pick your employer."
The shortage is a more serious concern for the UA college.
Tong said although there is no short-term solution to the problem, it may be necessary to change the way pharmacists work.
"We have to ask how pharmacists are being used - we could keep filling the pipeline with people, but that may not be the solution," he said.
One of the greatest concerns is that pharmacists will be too busy filling prescriptions to have patient contact.
"The bottom line issue is that you got to have professionals out there where the people get their medicine," he said.
The university only has resources to add 10 to 20 students to the current class of 55 students each year.
"We're concerned that the number of applications to pharmacy colleges has fallen - people are not recognizing there is a shortage," which causes companies to compete for graduates, he said.
"At Career Day in February, the number of employers outnumber the number of students," Tong said.
Higher pay and lucrative signing bonuses from some drugstore chains for pharmacists has been a tempting offer for some students.
But the offers are not as tempting as they may seem for people not in the field.
"Our students don't want to fill 30 to 40 prescriptions per hour - they want patient contact," he said.
The future of pharmacy may be that computers and technicians fill the prescriptions while the pharmacists spend more time with patients, Tong added.
The students are also excited about the possibility of having more job choices.
Katie Steffel, a pharmacology first-year student, said she has not made up her mind on a career path.
"There are so many opportunities. I have no idea what I want to do yet," Steffel said.
The college's curriculum also has changed significantly to adjust to the future of pharmacies, Tong said.
The new programs raised the ranking of the UA program into the top ten in the nation.
