Planning the pharmacy workforce:the critical role of surveying pharmacists

摘要

Pharmacy is changing rapidly and so too are the demands on the profession.To decide how many pharmacists we should be training now it is vital to know how many Britain will need in five,10 and 20 years'time.An indispensable element in the analysis is the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's census,which will give us up-to-date information on the profile of the current pharmacist population.But to plan effectively for the future,other sources of data will also be needed.All the main factors that might affect the future demand for pharmacists need to be identified and quantified,and much more needs to be known about what will affect the numbers available to do the work.The most powerful forces for change right now include: