Mr. Lamb is a freelance pharmacy writer living in Virginia Beach, Va, and president of Thorough Cursor Inc.

 
Hundreds of teaching positions at pharmacy schools are unfilled, and it is taking institutions as long as 2 years to fill vacancies. Shortages are particularly acute in clinical practice and pharmaceutical science and will be difficult to make up, as new schools open, existing schools increase enrollments, the professoriat ages, and pharmacy graduates are drawn away from academia by historically high salaries for community practitioners.

Although the coming crisis in pharmacy staffing is well-known, "there is very little awareness of the extent of the faculty shortage," noted Campbell University professor and Pharmaceutical Sciences Institute Director William Stagner, RPh, PhD. Working with the most up-to-date data from the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), Dr. Stagner found that 357, or 12%, of all faculty positions were unfilled in 2002-2003. Asked if the situation had improved since then, Dr. Stagner said, "I believe it's getting worse. In fact, the shortage is beyond critical."

According to AACP, total pharmacy school enrollment grew by 6% between 2004 and 2005 and will continue to grow, as the number of pharmacy schools increases from 91 to >100 by the end of this decade. "We need more pharmacists just to keep pace with the dispensing and order-fulfillment responsibilities, let alone the expanded clinical care responsibilities," said Dr. Stagner.

"I'm confident the faculty positions will be filled," assured AACP Vice President for Academic Affairs George MacKinnon, RPh, PharmD, FASHP. "But what we conceive of as faculty today will look much different 20 years from now."

For example, Drs. MacKinnon and Stagner both suggested that professors could be drawn from nonpharmacy disciplines—for example, biology faculty members could teach anatomy and physiology. "We would need to educate these individuals about what pharmacy and the PharmD are, though," said Dr. MacKinnon.

In the shorter term, pharmacy schools are retaining retired professors to teach part-time and are collaborating to deliver courses online or via teleconference. Schools and organizations also are working to increase incentives for students to stay on the faculty track.

"A federal bill like the stalled Pharmacy Education Aid Act of 2003 would be a good start," Dr. Stagner said. "That would make $35,000 available to people who stay in school for advanced degrees."