Oh, the places they can go: response to APhA-ASHP report on concerns about accelerating expansion of pharmacy education.

摘要

The discussion paper by the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) on pharmacist supply and demand calls for a strategy to head off an oversupply of pharmacists and a weakening in the quality of graduates and faculty. The report conveys worries about the supply of pharmacists needed to staff clinical practice settings, and clinical practice settings only. These worries could tempt the profession into constraining the growth of pharmacy graduates, and if that temptation cannot be resisted, the profession will truncate opportunities for the graduates, the public, and itself. The discussion paper may just create that very temptation. But, what the paper does not do is to take into account is that, oh, there are so many places pharmacists can go.