As students, we are encouraged from our first year in
pharmacy school to take on leadership positions and establish ourselves as
leaders among our peers. Often times, it seems we have all come from
backgrounds of having leadership positions that when a leadership opportunity
appears in our midst, we all grapple for the spot. With this in the back of my
mind, it surprised me when I read the article titled, “Is there still a
pharmacy leadership crisis? A seven-year follow-up assessment” in the American
Journal of Health-System Pharmacy. According to this article, there is a
predicted shortage of pharmacists in managerial positions at hospitals.
Many young pharmacists in clinical settings are unwilling to
give up patient contact and clinical skills to work in an administrative
position. I understand individuals’ needs to work in a challenging clinical
setting, but I also hope that pharmacists are able to shape their profession by
taking on administrative roles. Ideally, hospital administrators will be able
to work with their pharmacists to create hybrid administrative positions that
can be split between administrative and clinical practice.
