On The Cover
Loren Bonner
The time is ripe to study the pharmacy workforce, said David Mott, RPh, PhD, professor of social and administrative sciences at the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy.
As one of the authors of the 2024 National Pharmacy Workforce Study, which was published in June 2025, Mott said the information collected serves to improve pharmacists’ well-being and sustain a critical workforce.
The pharmacy profession has been at a breaking point with pharmacists experiencing burnout, stress, and other mental health challenges, and data like these are intended to serve as a catalyst for change.
What sets this and other recent reports apart is the shift away from what an individual needs to do for well-being—whether that’s getting better sleep or taking more paid time off—to how the workplace must adapt to influence overall health.
“There remains an urgent need to establish safer and more supportive work environments,” said Lemrey “Al” Carter, PharmD, executive director and CEO of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP).
NABP, along with APhA and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), released another report, “Implementing Solutions Summit 2.0: Building a Sustainable, Healthy Pharmacy Workforce and Workplace,” in September 2025 that includes solutions in key areas to improve pharmacy workplace conditions and an overall call to action for the profession.
The focus on solutions couldn’t be more apparent than when national experts convened for a 2-day workshop in May 2025 to discuss issues in pharmacy practice and to develop deliverables. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted the event, “Innovations in Pharmacy Training and Practice To Advance Patient Care: A Workshop.” They will publish a report, expected at the end of 2025 or beginning of 2026, about the proceedings and what individuals recommended during the workshop.
“This is going to the broader health care community, lawmakers, policymakers,” said Jonathan Watanabe, PharmD, workshop planning committee chair and professor at UCSF School of Pharmacy.
Even ahead of the report, Watanabe noted that in California alone, bills have been passed that have been “buttressed by the meeting.”
The event was the first one from the National Academies solely devoted to the field of pharmacy.
“I hope this is a historic event that will catalyze bold innovation to further transform the field as well as society along with it,” said Watanabe during opening remarks at the event.
2024 National Pharmacy Workforce Study
Mott and fellow researchers of the 2024 National Pharmacy Workforce Study wanted to know how pharmacists’ health was affected by workplace conditions and then what employers were doing to improve work environments.
“There’s a subtle difference in how pharmacists feel about their work and how they feel about the work environment,” said Brianne Bakken, PharmD, a member of the research team and associate professor at the University of Iowa College of Nursing.
The 2024 National Pharmacy Workforce Study found that 90% of pharmacist respondents felt the work they do is meaningful.
“But where we start to see things drop off is how organizations treat you or value your contributions,” said Bakken.
It comes as no surprise that pharmacists working in large chain community pharmacies—which are more likely to be understaffed—reported low job satisfaction and heavier workloads in the survey results. Pharmacists in independent community pharmacies were the least likely to report high workloads. Job satisfaction was also higher for pharmacists working in ambulatory care settings and in other types of work environments, such as managed care or pharmaceutical companies.
Mott said they plan to investigate further why these environments may be more positive.
The research team recorded the responses of more than 5,100 pharmacists from across the country and looked at everything from job satisfaction and pay to mental health.
“The 2024 report does a good job of giving us an overview of issues pharmacists are experiencing,” said Mott. “As a researcher, it provides good background information to dive into an issue.”
The 2024 National Pharmacist Workforce Study is also the first to use the NIOSH WellBQ to assess pharmacists’ well-being, a tool that is being used for other industry research as well.
“We now have a benchmark, and we have this instrument out there to get a sense of how things are trending,” said Mott. “Other industries and groups use this instrument, so it will allow us to compare pharmacists with other health professions or industries.”
Numbers from this recent data set also reveal that the pharmacy workforce may be going back into a shortage.
The number of working pharmacists peaked in 2019, and the profession’s unemployment rate reached around 5% that same year. But in 2024, that number fell to just 2.8%.
“There are always two sides,” said Bakken. “The positive for pharmacists is that you have a job and your skill set is transferrable—we see many going into nontraditional roles. But on the flip side, if you are an employer, you feel the shortage and the need to fill those roles.”
Bakken said she was surprised by the reported number of poor mental health days from the survey.
“It may reflect the overall mental health of the younger group and generation,” said Bakken. “Today, people call out for mental health days—that never used to happen. We need to figure out how to support this new group, this younger generation.”
Mott agrees there are generational differences that need to be considered within pharmacy work environments going forward.
“We have to make sure our younger pharmacists are healthy and happy and we can sustain them,” said Mott.
Implementing Solutions Summit 2.0 call to action
Based on the information gathered through the Implementing Solutions Summit 2.0: Building a Sustainable, Healthy Pharmacy Workforce and Workplace, the host organizations developed a call to action, as follows, and included in the final report:
- Create a central repository of information, including case studies, national studies, and success stories, to educate health-system executives and payers on the value of pharmacy services and a similar repository for boards of pharmacy to access information on new technology and innovative practice models.
- Evaluate pharmacy workflows—focusing on removal of non-value−added or redundant tasks, opportunities for technology to improve efficiency, and prioritization of patient care functions. Further, continue developing flexible work models and schedules and clear career pathways for all members of the pharmacy workforce.
- Foster an environment of psychological safety through a just culture approach to discipline, mental health training and resources, removing stigmatizing questions from applications, and prioritizing recovery and return to practice.
- Advocate for payment reform. Continue focusing on payer-specific, state, and federal efforts, and dedicate significant effort to ensuring consistency of messaging across the profession.
- Assemble tools and resources to aid pharmacy leaders in practice assessment, well-being and burnout measurement, and mental health services. Given that best practices and evidence-informed interventions are often based on experiences in other health professions, continue to invest in pharmacy-specific research focusing on interventions that impact well-being. ■
Priority areas for health workforce well-being
- Positive work and learning environments, and culture
- Compliance, regulatory, and policy barriers
- Diverse and inclusive health workforce
- Measurement, assessment, strategies, and research
- Effective technology tools
- Mental health and stigma
- Well-being as a long-term value
Adapted from the May 2025 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine workshop.
Implementing Solutions Summit 2.0
As a result of a 2023 summit convened by APhA, ASHP, and NABP, the Implementing Solutions Summit 2.0 report has been years in the making.
“Pharmacists and other pharmacy staff can use the report as a guide to precipitate change,” said Carter.
Five themes were central to the 2023 summit: practice advancement, technology and workflow efficiencies, workforce, mental health, and regulatory and legislative framework.
“The sections on practice advancement, technology and workflow efficiencies, and workforce recommend actions that pharmacies can take to promote practices that support well-being,” Carter said.
Several reoccurring topics emerged from the event, including:
- Payment reform efforts must continue and will require unified messaging and data.
- Technology must be adopted strategically, balancing efficiency and trust.
- Educational alignment with pharmacy practice is critical to preparing and retaining a future workforce.
- Reducing overly prescriptive regulations will open the door to the use of new technologies, innovative practice models, and an expanded scope of practice for pharmacy technicians.
- Assessment of pharmacy workflows for redundant and burdensome tasks will allow for reimagined roles, new opportunities for pharmacy technicians, innovative technology applications, and reduced workload.
“One way that NABP and its member boards can help is by allowing for regulatory flexibility, including the expansion of pharmacist and technician scope of practice, as well as the ability to use technology to the greatest extent possible to optimize workflow and efficiencies,” said Carter. “In addition, member boards can move toward a standard of care approach to regulation and a just culture approach to regulatory compliance. These actions can lead to work environments that support positive mental health and well-being.”
Future pursuits
APhA, ASHP, and NABP plan to jointly develop an organizational assessment tool to encourage practices that support well-being among pharmacy employees.
The research team from the 2024 National Pharmacy Workforce Study will continue to analyze free text responses from the 2024 survey, including pharmacists’ descriptions of their roles.
“As pharmacy practice has evolved and roles have expanded, we haven’t done a good job of keeping up with documenting what those roles are and how those roles have actually expanded and into what work activities,” Mott said. “Now we have all this really good data about these details.”
Survey results found an increase in the percentage of licensed pharmacists who are working outside of pharmacy settings, though they still make up less than 10% of the profession.
To add to these data sets, APhA is set to release the latest findings from both the Well-Being Index for Pharmacy Personnel and the Pharmacy Workplace and Well-being Reporting portal, a confidential and anonymous way pharmacy personnel can report positive and negative experiences in pharmacy practice. ■
Well-being resources