Representatives from many of the country’s largest pharmacy chains descended on the University of Rhode Island’s Kingston campus this spring. They weren’t there for the nearby beaches.
The recruiters were in town to woo the 112 graduates of URI’s College of Pharmacy – with many offering salaries in excess of $80,000.
“The chains come in from all over to recruit, and these kids have the opportunity to go anywhere in the country,” said Joan M. Lausier, associate dean of URI’s College of Pharmacy. “A lot of times they’ll offer signing bonuses and moving expenses too.”
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
While many industries are letting workers go, this year’s more than 8,000 pharmacy school graduates are just about guaranteed jobs, said Will Lang of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacies. As of January, chain drug stores had 6,503 vacant pharmacy positions, offering starting salaries averaging around $79,000. Thousands more positions are available at hospitals, clinics and elsewhere.
“There still is a pharmacist shortage and will be for years to come,” said Mike DeAngelis, a spokesman for Woonsocket-based CVS Corp. CVS and competitors such as Walgreen Co. are using incentives such as stock options, signing bonuses and relocation packages to lure pharmacy students to new jobs.
Americans are living longer and using more prescription drugs. Consumer advertising, increased prescription coverage and new drug therapies have added to pharmacists’ workloads. The number of prescriptions dispensed is expected to increase 26 percent to almost 4 billion in 2005, from 3.01 billion in 2001, according to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. The number of new pharmacists is expected to increase 3.9 percent by 2005, the association said.
One reason for the shortage of pharmacists is that pharmacy students are spending more time in school. A committee of pharmacy schools and professional organizations decided in the mid-1990s that for pharmacists to work in more diverse areas, such as clinical sites, they needed more education, said Lang of the pharmacy college association.
Instead of spending five years earning a bachelor’s degree, students now study six years for a doctor of pharmacy degree. Students can still get a bachelor’s degree, but starting in 2004, they won’t be able to take a state-licensing exam without the doctorate. “They have to be licensed to dispense drugs,” Lang said. Current pharmacists don’t need a doctorate. According to a report from the American Hospital Association in April, 46 percent of hospitals have a shortage of pharmacists.
Of URI’s crop of 112 pharmacy grads, only about half will immediately hit the work force. Roughly 25 graduates have chosen to pursue advanced training in fields such as pediatrics or outcomes research, Lausier said. Another 28 graduated from the college’s “non-traditional,” part-time pharmacy program, which is for licensed, practicing pharmacists who want to earn their Doctor of Pharmacy degree.
About 60 percent of all graduates chose to work at chain drug stores instead of taking jobs with clinics, hospital pharmacies or state governments, because the starting pay is higher, Lang said.
“Students can easily come out of school with $80,000 in debt,” Lang said. “Somebody that’s offering you a $70,000-$80,000 job is a lot more attractive than a $40,000-$50,000 job with more patient contact.”
Sen. Jack Reed, D-RI, has sponsored a bill dubbed “The Pharmacy Education Aid Act of 2001,” which would provide federal funding to help pharmacy students pay back loans and to lure pharmacists to join faculty at pharmacy schools.
The nation’s pharmacy schools also haven’t been able to accommodate the interest in the profession. Of the 26,256 applications for first-year pharmacy students in 2001, only 8,922 were accepted for enrollment.
“The problem is our schools are having a difficult time trying to figure out how to expand their class size, especially if they’re going to ask people to stay a year longer,” Lang said.
That is the case at URI’s College of Pharmacy, which receives three applications for every available spot, Lausier said. “We don’t have the resources to take more students,” she said.
Pharmacists are in such high demand that graduates are being offered perks that include signing bonuses, matching 401K programs and relocation packages. In the first year out of college, a graduate can earn an average of $79,100 at a retail pharmacy, according to a survey commissioned by the trade publication Pharmacy Week.
Increased competition has forced retailers to work harder to prevent their pharmacists from going to other companies. The pharmacist shortage caused CVS Corp. to reduce service hours in as many as 20 percent of its stores last year.
The second-largest U.S. drugstore chain hired about 800 new pharmacist graduates and about 1,200 pharmacists from competitors in 2001, filling vacancies and positions made available by attrition, spokesman DeAngelis said. CVS works to keep pharmacists by offering stock options and pay raises, and providing automatic pill counters and trained pharmacy technicians to ease workloads, he said.
