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Pharmacy Manpower Project Reveals 2009 Workforce Trends
The economic recession, coupled with a persistently high demand for pharmacists, contributed to several shifts in the 2009 pharmacy workforce, according to a new report from the Pharmacy Manpower Project, Inc, a nonprofit corporation that develops data on the size and demographics of the pharmacy workforce. In 2009, more licensed pharmacists were practicing, including a large portion over age 60 and a large portion of pharmacists working part-time.
From a random sample of 3,000 pharmacists, 1,395 pharmacists returned a completed 2009 National Pharmacist Workforce Survey, which collected information on characteristics and work contributions of the pharmacist workforce in the United States. Pharmacy Manpower’s Final Report of the 2009 National Sample Survey of the Pharmacist Workforce to Determine Contemporary Demographic and Practice Characteristics, published on March 1, 2010, presents the results of the survey and also includes comparisons with 2004 data.
Pharmacy Workforce Grows
Pharmacy Manpower found that, of those surveyed, the number of licensed pharmacists actively practicing pharmacy increased from 86% in 2004 to 88.3% in 2009, returning to a level similar to that of 2000. Pharmacists working part-time made up a larger portion of those practicing in 2009 than in 2004, while the contribution of pharmacists employed full-time did not increase. The increase in the number of practicing pharmacists, including those working part-time, may be due to the economic downturn in 2008 and 2009, as pharmacists working in other fields or not working at all may have decided to reenter the pharmacy workforce. According to the report, with the high demand for pharmacists, working part-time and choosing the number of hours to work has been an increasingly attractive option for both male and female pharmacists since 2000.
The economic downturn could also be responsible for another pharmacy workforce trend. Specifically, the number of pharmacists over age 55 increased by almost 7% between 2004 and 2009, and pharmacists age 60 and older made up a large portion of the pharmacy workforce. Due to the recession, pharmacists over age 60 may be returning or continuing to work in order to supplement retirement plans and gain economic security for their families.
Pharmacy Activities
While pharmacists in all practice settings indicated that they would like to spend more time in patient care services, education, and research activities and less time on dispensing, the survey reveals that the majority of pharmacists’ time in 2009 – 55% – was used to dispense medication. The average time pharmacists devoted to patient care services was 16%, while 5% of their time was devoted to education, and 4% to research. The average amount of time pharmacists devoted to business or organization management duties was 14% and 5% of their time was spent on other activities.
Pharmacists working full-time in community pharmacies devoted more work hours, an average of 74%, to dispensing medication, compared with full-time pharmacists in hospital and other patient care settings who spent approximately 43% of their time dispensing. Further, full-time pharmacists in community pharmacy settings spent an average of 10% of their time on patient care services, while full-time pharmacists in hospital and other patient care pharmacies devoted 27% of work hours to patient care. Figure 1 (page 107) provides more information about the average amount of time per week devoted to various activities for all full-time pharmacists providing sufficient information in the Pharmacy Manpower survey.
Male pharmacists reported that increasing workloads negatively impacted the amount of time they were able to spend in contact with patients, as well as quality of care, and the opportunity to solve drug therapy problems. In fact, 68% of all pharmacists indicated that the workload at their place of practice was high or excessively high, and this constitutes a 14% increase from 2004. The authors of the report suggest that future research should continue to monitor the shift in work activities, in light of workload changes and the expanding roles of pharmacists.
Workplace Restructuring
Shifts in the restructuring of the workplace were probably also due to the economic downturn. Work schedules were restructured to save labor costs among 26% of pharmacists. A reduction in hours was reported by 13% of pharmacists and 6% experienced layoffs. The average hours worked per week has decreased from the year 2000 when it was 44.2 hours, to 43.4 hours in 2004, and 43.8 hours in 2009.
Pharmacist Education
The proportion of pharmacists holding advanced degrees has increased steadily since 2000. In 2009, 21.6% of practicing pharmacists held a doctor of pharmacy as their highest degree compared with 13.9% in 2000. In 2009, 10.9% of practicing pharmacists held master’s level degrees or doctors of philosophy, while 7.3% of pharmacists held these degrees in 2000. Practicing pharmacists reporting that they held a bachelor of science as their highest degree totaled 66.3%, compared with 74.1% in 2000 and 71.2% in 2004. These survey statistics show the trend in the pharmacy workforce since the doctor of pharmacy became the standard level of education for pharmacists entering the field of practice in 2004. The Pharmacy Manpower survey report is available on the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Web site at www .aacp .org/resources/research/ pharmacymanpower/ Pages/default.aspx by clicking on the link to the Final Report of the National Pharmacist Workforce Study 2009.
