Indiana’s pharmacy schools face the challenge of training the next generation of pharmacists
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For Custom Publications
While the demand for pharmacists is growing, pharmacy schools struggle to educate new pharmacists fast enough.
“Pharmacy schools are gearing up to educate more pharmacists, but right now we face limitations on classroom and laboratory space as well as limits on places where our students can go for clinical rotations,” said Bonnie Brown, Pharm.D., associate professor of pharmacy practice in Butler University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, which has more than 500 students. “Down the road, the shortage will go away, but the problem is not one with a quick fix.”
The statistics show a growing need. In 2003, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores reported about 5,500 vacancies in drug stores. That same year, about 2,800 pharmacy positions in hospitals were unfilled, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
Shortages have been exacerbated by the increase in the number of prescriptions being filled as baby boomers age. Between 1992 and 1999, the number of prescriptions filled by a community pharmacist rose 32 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores predicts the number of prescriptions to be filled in 2006 will top 4 billion, up from 3 billion in 2001.
This is a problem without a simple solution. Although several new schools of pharmacy have opened in recent years, they won’t produce immediate results. In Indiana, enrollment is at capacity at the state’s only schools of pharmacy: Butler and Purdue University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
The good news is that pharmacy programs are attracting students who will, when they complete six years of training, help meet the demand for pharmacists to research and develop new medications and expand faculty opportunities. They’ll also fill the gaps at community pharmacies, hospitals, long-term care facilities and in-home health care services.
“Pharmacy schools are gearing up to educate more pharmacists, but right now we face limitations on classroom and laboratory space as well as limits on places where our students can go for clinical rotations,” said Bonnie Brown, Pharm.D., associate professor of pharmacy practice in Butler University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, which has more than 500 students. “Down the road, the shortage will go away, but the problem is not one with a quick fix.”
The statistics show a growing need. In 2003, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores reported about 5,500 vacancies in drug stores. That same year, about 2,800 pharmacy positions in hospitals were unfilled, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
Shortages have been exacerbated by the increase in the number of prescriptions being filled as baby boomers age. Between 1992 and 1999, the number of prescriptions filled by a community pharmacist rose 32 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores predicts the number of prescriptions to be filled in 2006 will top 4 billion, up from 3 billion in 2001.
This is a problem without a simple solution. Although several new schools of pharmacy have opened in recent years, they won’t produce immediate results. In Indiana, enrollment is at capacity at the state’s only schools of pharmacy: Butler and Purdue University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
The good news is that pharmacy programs are attracting students who will, when they complete six years of training, help meet the demand for pharmacists to research and develop new medications and expand faculty opportunities. They’ll also fill the gaps at community pharmacies, hospitals, long-term care facilities and in-home health care services.
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