Shifting perspectives - Planning for the future of the pharmacy profession taking current labor market trends into consideration

Abstract

The future of the pharmacy profession and concerns about professional identity have been popular and recurring themes in professional journals and at international pharmacy conferences for more than 30 years. The aim of this paper is to contribute to realistic and viable visions for the future of the pharmacy profession via insights through labor market and work organization theories. These insights provide an understanding of contemporary work patterns and what they mean for the future role of community pharmacists. It appears that an important and influential contemporary trend in work organization today is precarious work, i.e. non-standard employment that promotes and relies on a flexible and fluid work force. Contrary to permanent employment, precarious work is often poorly paid, insecure, unprotected, and in many cases cannot support a household. The growth of precarious work among professionals, including pharmacists has been documented in many countries. In the early 21st century a major concern in the UK was the growth in the number of pharmacists who choose to be self-employed "locums" as opposed to seeking permanent employment. With the spread of precarious work a new, involuntary form of employment appeared a decade later with the spread of "zero-hour contracts" and "exclusivity agreements". Particularly affected by these flexible, precarious work conditions are the highly-educated young health professionals such as pharmacists. The profession needs to be proactive in order to stay abreast of economic/workforce and organizational trends. The way forward is a commitment to a dynamic, knowledge-based vision that includes an ongoing analysis of the outside world. The core role of pharmacists in the future includes: 1. engagement in interprofessional education with other healthcare professionals; 2. an acceptance of the contribution that lay knowledge provides to the understanding of health and medicines, and 3.keeping ajour with new and revolutionary treatments, both pharmaceutical and non-pharmacological.

Keywords: Community pharmacy; Interprofessional; Pharmacy profession; Precarious work; Sociology; Work organization.