Assessing the Alignment Between Pharmacists' Reported Tasks and Employer-Advertised Skills

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Practice
• Health Workforce Analysis
• Labor Market Analytics

Background:

• The evolving landscape of pharmacy practice necessitates understanding the alignment between pharmacists' daily tasks and employers' skill requirements.
• Analyzing trends over a decade (2012-2022) is crucial for identifying shifts in the pharmacy profession and education.
• Publicly available databases like O*NET and Lightcast offer valuable data for workforce analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the alignment between tasks performed by pharmacists and skills sought by employers.
• To identify changes in pharmacist tasks and employer-sought skills over a 10-year period (2012-2022).

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) for pharmacist tasks and Lightcast for employer job advertisements.
• Developed a crosswalk to compare the top 20 performed tasks with the most advertised skills.
• Analyzed longitudinal data to track changes and trends over the specified decade.

Main Results:

• Pharmacist tasks, such as prescription review, showed minimal change, while interprofessional collaboration and informatics increased.
• Employer demand saw a rise in business and management skills, with a decline in sought-after experience in specific healthcare settings and some clinical skills.
• Emerging sought-after skills included patient care aspects like vaccination, allergy management, diabetes care, and wellness.

Conclusions:

• A significant misalignment exists between the consistent core tasks of pharmacists (e.g., prescription review) and the evolving skills employers seek.
• The emphasis on business and management skills by employers, contrasted with core clinical tasks, suggests a potential discrepancy in pharmacy education's focus.
• Addressing this gap is essential for ensuring pharmacy graduates are adequately prepared for current and future workforce demands.