Hospital Pharmacy - May 2017 - 338

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Hospital Pharmacy 52(5)

Table 4. Critical Care Pharmacy Residency Program Directors
Survey Results: Job Prospect Perception Following Various PGY2
Programs.a

Critical care
Ambulatory care
Emergency medicine
Administration
Infectious diseases
Internal medicine
Hematology/oncology
Pediatrics
Psychiatry
Solid organ transplant

Mean

4.5
3.4
3.5
5.8
5.6
6.2
3.6
6.6
9.2
6.7

2.3
2.3
1.8
2.8
2.2
2.5
2.6
2.1
1.3
2.7

Note. Responses were rated from 1 = best job prospects to 10 = worst
job prospects. PGY2 = postgraduate year 2.
a
Percentages are for individual question responses not of total survey
respondents.

Market perception. The DOP group felt that overall inpatient
pharmacist demand was in balance with supply and salaries
were primarily increasing or remaining stable (Table 6). Of
the 10 institutions that noted high demand, 9 were at community hospitals and 7 had fewer than 100 beds. Of the 27
institutions that noted moderate demand, 6 were academic
medical centers. Infrequently, organizations have pharmacists applying for technician-level positions. There appears
to be moderate demand for critical care trained individuals,
with most DOPs indicating some difficulty filling critical
care positions. DOPs perceived demand for critical care
pharmacists to be higher than RPDs (mean, 3.2 vs 2.8; P =
.032). DOPs also felt that there was a balance of critical care
training in the current market. A majority of respondents
indicated that they had plans to expand their pharmacy residency program over the next 5 years, but only 9% plan to
increase their critical care residency program. Those institutions looking to expand ranged in size from 75 to 1450 beds.
Of the 8 institutions responding they would expand their program, 6 would be new programs (5 in community hospital
and 1 in an academic medical center) and 2 would be expanding existing critical care programs (both in academic medical
centers). The new programs tended to be in organizations
with recent turnover in critical care pharmacists (6 of 8). The
DOPs indicated a high affinity for hiring their own residents,
with a majority indicating they were planning on hiring 4 or
more of their current residents. The director survey also indicated that pharmacist salaries have remained stable or
slightly increased over the past 5 years.
Student training perceptions. With the increase in clinical
pharmacy practice models and an increase in colleges of
pharmacy across the country, the idea of dual training tracks
for pharmacy students is occasionally proposed. One track
would focus on retail dispensing roles, while the other would
track students into health systems and residency programs.

The 2 surveyed groups had very different thoughts on this
direction of pharmacy training. A majority (54%) of the CC
RPD group supported this idea, whereas only 22% of the
DOP group was in support.

Discussion
This survey sought to determine the perception of supply and
demand of critical care positions in the current clinical pharmacy job market. With the consistent rise in both the number
of student pharmacists pursuing postgraduate residency programs and the number of programs and positions available
for critical care pharmacy training, many respondents perceived that a shortage exists in availability of critical care-
focused job opportunities.
Despite this perception, which was the motivation for the
current survey, current CC RPDs appear to be of the opinion
that despite an increase in applications over the last 5 years,
programs have limited plans for an increased number of critical care pharmacy residency positions. This may indicate
that the critical care training market is well matched for the
available critical care positions but is increasingly unable to
meet the interests of students. Student pharmacists may need
to consider pursuing other associated specialties if they are
unable to match in a relatively flat PGY2 CC market.
Despite a perception of a flooded market for critical care
specialized clinical pharmacists and recent surveys suggesting the stagnant nature of the critical care pharmacy job market, the surveyed individuals report a job market very much in
balance. CC RPDs stated that critical care job availability
within their organizations has increased or remained stable
over the past 5 years. There appear to be some inconsistencies
in opinions though, as CC RPDs reported the majority of their
program graduates finding jobs in critical care within a short
job search period but did not rank critical care as a high-ranking job prospect for future pharmacists. This could be the
result of a decreasing number of CC PGY2s taking critical
care positions internal to the training organization and slight
rise in the number of residents who take non-critical care
positions internal to the organization. With the focus on internal positions, the perception is market saturation. This is
despite survey results that describe rapid filling of critical
care positions and a job market that has promise for increased
availability of critical care pharmacist positions over the next
5 years. It appears that despite CC RPDs' low ranking of job
availability in critical care, DOPs actually plan to continue to
increase the number of critical care trained pharmacists on
staff. The sense of imbalance in the market that was felt by
CC RPDs could also be related to the fact that after significant
recent growth in residency training programs, there are indeed
more critically care trained pharmacists than ever before.
Both RPDs and DOPs felt that there was adequate balance
of supply and demand of critical care pharmacists, but DOPs
appear to highly value the critical care pharmacist, describing them as a group that is sought after and identifying future
need for more critical care positions. In fact, DOPs felt that

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