Trends in the Pharmacist Workforce and Pharmacy Education

This commentary is an observation of longitudinal trends in national data on the pharmacist workforce and pharmacy education. Data indicate seismic shifts in supply and demand, from critical shortage to imminent oversupply. The change in the profession to employing more patient-care focused jobs has been observed as slow and minimal, although academia has focused on the clinical training and rapidly increased enrollments. Pharmacy is on the brink of transforming the profession, but several important changes are still required to alter the current trajectories of supply and demand. Pharmacy schools, associations, and employers must devote all energies to immediate and significant actions that tip the balance in favor of pharmacists of the future.