Faculty recruitment and retention: A major workforce issue

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Summer 2001 by Currie, Bruce L

Dean Rosalie Sagraves, Chair of the AACP Council of Deans recently wrote about the issue of faculty workforce ("A Workforce Issue: Faculty Needs," AJPE, 65, 92) in the previous issue and described the formation of a committee to address the issues associated with faculty recruitment and retention. In an earlier issue ("Of the Faculty, for the Council of Faculties," AJPE, 64, 468-469), the COF Faculty Affairs Committee, which is addressing this issue, was described. The COD and COF committees are also trying to work together on this project. Charles Pulliam, Head of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at MCV/VCU (cpulliam@vcu.edu), is chairing the COF committee.

Certainly the various aspects of faculty recruitment and retention are near and dear to all of our hearts. For most of our schools and colleges of pharmacy, faculty recruitment is an ongoing effort that engages many faculty members in the search committees and interviews. Over the past fifteen years, there probably have been very few years where there was not at least one faculty position open in every school. Just the increased pace with which new schools and colleges of pharmacy are being developed and opened has put substantial pressure on the "market" while at the same time it seems that fewer and fewer graduates of residency programs and PhD programs are seeking an academic career as their first option. Part of this lack of interest in seeking an academic career can be associated with the high salaries and demand for pharmacists in non-academic settings. However, I am concerned that we are not nurturing the future generations of faculty members during the educational process. We can develop elective experiential rotations for PharmD students that focus on educational processes and theory and the various roles of a faculty member. Some of these elective rotations already exist, but more need to be developed and highlighted in annual meeting programming. We can encourage and even "push" highly qualified students into these experiences in order to try to catalyze their thinking about a possible academic career as an option.

I think that most, if not all, of us that have made a career of academia relish the academic life and find that there are many rewards beyond strictly the monetary rewards. All of us want to earn and receive a reasonable salary and provide for our families. However, I think that we can do more to introduce our students to the joys and frustrations associated with the life of a faculty member, whether clinical or pharmaceutical science. Increasing enrollments and opening new schools and colleges of pharmacy are not the only approaches to dealing with the pharmacy workforce issues that our country faces. The essential resources that are in extremely short supply are the faculty members to teach the increasing number of pharmacy students. I ask each one of us to do our part to identify and encourage future faculty members among our students.

Bruce L. Currie

College of Pharmacy, South Dakota State University, Box 2202C. Brookings SD 57007-0099