How the health staffing shortage affects pharmacist recruitment

Pharmacists are one of the inevitable components of the healthcare ecosystem. The duties of the pharmacists not only include dispensing medicines and educating patients, but they also play an important role in the hospital’s drug house inventory management. With the right skilled pharmacists, your facility can save money while enhancing operational efficiency. You might have most likely seen reports about the shortage of various drugs in the news. Likewise, yet another pressing issue in the healthcare sector is the shortage of pharmacists. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a pharmacist-to-population ratio of one pharmacist per 2,000 people for optimal healthcare. However, the rising shortage of pharmacists is affecting the healthcare staffing industry as well as patient care.

The shortage of pharmacists in the USA is due to many factors, such as the COVID-19 immunization that leads to burned-out pharmacists, poor work-life balance, and unfair compensation packages, causing the early retirement of the workforce. This blog details how the healthcare staffing shortage is affecting pharmacist recruitment in healthcare facilities.

The growing demand for pharmacists

Pharmacists are in high demand in the USA. According to the Pharmacy Demand Report published by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, 18,681 job postings are reported for pharmacists by the second quarter of 2024, which is significantly higher than the 14,200 yearly average job openings for pharmacists projected by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The pharmacists‘ job growth is projected to increase by 5% in the next decade. This highlights the growing demand for pharmacists in most of the states in the USA. 

This growing demand for pharmacists especially affects healthcare facilities in underserved areas and non-metropolitan regions. With the increasing technological enhancements in the healthcare sector, pharmacists who are well-equipped to work alongside physicians to provide support with pharmacotherapy and dosage optimization are in high demand. Moreover, the rising awareness of chronic disease management among the public and the aging population has increased the number of patients in hospitals seeking preventive care treatments, including immunization. 

Challenges in pharmacist recruitment

• Healthcare facilities in the USA are struggling to hire pharmacists due to their rising demand. The shortage of qualified pharmacists in the USA has caused a competitive job market where the facilities are compelled to offer a comprehensive compensation package above the market standards. This has caused some facilities to spend above their budget to hire the right pharmacists for them.  

• The pharmacist hiring comes with a lot of regulatory complexities as the role demands working closely with patients and other allied healthcare professionals. An adverse drug event can cause a huge financial and reputational loss to the facilities. Hence, it is essential to navigate all the compliance challenges associated with pharmacist hiring.

• Another important challenge is the credentialing of potential candidates. A thorough credentialing needs to be done to ensure that the pharmacist hired does not have any pending drug abuse or criminal history. Credentialing also includes verifying the qualification, experience, and license of the pharmacist to understand whether he/she is eligible to work in the state where your facility is located.

• While discussing the pharmacist recruitment challenges, it is worth mentioning the retention challenges. Most of the new pharmacist recruitment challenges can be avoided if there is a proper retention strategy. The retention challenge includes providing career development opportunities, industry-standard pay, etc.

• The most important challenge is to adhere to the pharmacist licensure requirements and the scope of work listed by your state. This is subject to frequent revisions and the facilities must be aware of the latest rules imposed by the state to hire pharmacists.

What are the pharmacist licensure requirements in Alabama?

To hire pharmacists in Alabama, you must ensure your candidates satisfy all the conditions specified by the state and get the license. All Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) graduates from accredited universities who have completed a minimum of 1500 internship hours are qualified to apply for the Alabama State Board of Pharmacy’s licensure. In addition, the candidate must pass the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) and Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination (MPJE) to ensure that the candidate has expertise in the technical and federal regulations related to the pharmacy domain. Once the application for the license is submitted, the board does a background verification of the candidate. There will be a final virtual interview of the candidate with the board members, after which the license to work as a Pharmacist in Alabama will be sanctioned. This license granted needs to be revised every two years to fulfill 30 hours of continuing education requirement. 

Key metrics to track for successful pharmacist hiring in healthcare systems

To overcome healthcare staffing shortages, certain measures can be devised to navigate the challenges associated with pharmacist hiring. This can include creating more pharmacists’ employment opportunities by having a strong employer brand to attract top talented pharmacists to your facility by offering compelling benefits like salary and additional perks, including paid time-offs, flexible shifts, career development opportunities, etc. Moreover, retaining your existing pharmacists by providing them with the said benefits, establishing a clear career progression pathway, and implementing policies to support diversity and inclusiveness can help you decrease the staff turnover rate in your facility. The efficiency of all the above-said strategies can be tracked by considering the following key metrics for successful pharmacist hiring in healthcare systems.

• Time to hire pharmacists: This metric considers the average time taken to fill a pharmacist’s vacant role once it is published. The lower the hiring time, the more appealing the facility’s job description.
• Quality of hire: To understand the quality of the pharmacist hired, the performance evaluation can be done at regular intervals. It gives a clear picture of whether the pharmacist hired is competent enough.

• Offer acceptance rate: This metric indicates the ratio of the number of job offers accepted by the pharmacists to the number of job offers extended. This is also a good indicator of whether or not your facility stays on top of the competent pharmacist staffing market.

• Candidate source effectiveness: This metric is effective in crafting efficient recruitment strategies. It will help the facilities get an idea of the top sources (job boards, social media, etc) from where the vacancy was filled.

• Candidate experience feedback: Having a survey to collect feedback from the candidates regarding the recruitment process can help streamline any downsides in the facility’s hiring process.

• Job satisfaction level: This metric is particularly important to track successful pharmacist retention rates. The job satisfaction surveys can give you a clear picture of how satisfied is your current workforce, and the chances of staff turnover.

• Turnover rates: The pharmacist turnover rate can be calculated by taking the ratio between the number of pharmacists who resigned during a particular period to the average number of pharmacists during that period. The turnover rate is the best indicator to understand how the strategies adopted for staff retention are performing. According to the American Pharmacists Association, the average rate of pharmacist turnover is 11% in the USA.