A glut of pharmacists is on its way

Something that the money hungry schools will not tell you--there is not going to be a great demand for pharmacists within the next 4-5 years. Increased licensing of technicians, more sophisticated technology, wholesale importation of foreign pharmacists, governmental restraints and a badly splintered and divided small profession all spell DOOM!
Pharmacists have long been famous for not being able to unite for their own best interest. As a group they are politically and culturally backward with very little real lobbying and persuasive powers. Yes indeed, there is a current shortage of pharmacists, but that is being increasingly seen mainly in rural areas. In urban and suburban areas within 50 miles of pharmacy schools, the job market is becoming saturated quickly. Many if not most people want to live near cities. Pharmacists are no different. Jobs are going begging in the sticks,while urban jobs are becoming increasingly hard to find. The schools, being profit driven, and being goaded by the drugstore chains have succeeded in throwing oodles of new graduates in the market. These schools of Pharmacy and their faculty have little appreciation of the life and work of the retail pharmacist. They push constantly "Clinical involvement" when in fact there is really little in retail. The field of Pharmacy has been living on a dream of "potential possibilities" little of which come to fruition. The fact is that Pharmacists are dealing in vending products and providing information- not hands on activities as other medical professionals. Information specialists and vendors are much more likely to be phased out or farmed out to other professionals such as nurses, who even though they do not possess the same degree of knowledge, are "hands on" and are much more "Wholistic" in their practice. They are also far more numerous and wield far greater political power.
I have just started this blog to give some food for thought in an area in which I feel it is badly needed.
Sincerely, Ed, RPh