Rite Aid and educators team up to boost pharmacy school counts

Drug Store News,  July 17, 2000  by James Frederick

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CAMP HILL, Pa. -- A joint effort by Rite Aid and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy to boost pharmacy school enrollments through direct appeals to the chain's own customers appears to be yielding results. At the very least, the promotional campaign--which targets Rite Aid customers at the prescription counter--is generating interest among prospective pharmacy practitioners.

Since February, Rite Aid's 3,800 stores have distributed pharmaceuticals to patients in a newly designed prescription bag that encourages customers to consider a career in pharmacy. Patients are told they can respond to the campaign either by contacting their pharmacist, visiting Rite Aid's Web site or contacting AACP by phone, mail or at www.aacp.org.

Since the program's inception, daily visits to the AACP Web site have doubled and continue to increase said Michele Belsey, Rite Aid's director of college and professional recruitment. "We created the program in order 'to encourage people to learn more about a career in the field of pharmacy," she said. "Since we initiated the program, interest from potential candidates through Rite Aid and AACP has been tremendous."

Rite Aid will make the pharmacy bag message permanent, according to spokesperson Sarah Datz.

Richard Penna, executive vice president of AACP, underscored the value of the program. "We are very pleased to collaborate with Rite Aid in this important and successful recruitment venture," he said. "Pharmacy ... is expanding to meet the growing demands of a changing and expanding healthcare system."

Rite Aid also remains an aggressive recruiter, with Belsey and others trying to interest students at high schools, community colleges, technical schools and health fairs in pursuing careers in pharmacy. The chain also hosted faculty from 67 of the nation's 82 schools of pharmacy last October for a dialogue on pharmacy education.

The joint program could help alleviate an extreme and still growing shortage of pharmacists in many U.S. markets. According to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the number of professional vacancies at community pharmacies nationwide has grown to roughly 6,000, thanks to rising prescription utilization rates, an aging population, an explosion in practice sites and other factors. And retail pharmacy is not the only segment of the profession affected; according to the American Society for Health System Pharmacists, about half of all hospitals are reporting a shortage of pharmacists, with an average vacancy rate of 17 percent.

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