Why Pharmacy Informatics Might Not Be For You
Looking for pharmacy informatics jobs? Are you new to pharmacy informatics? Do you think that there are plenty of jobs out there? Think it’s an easy day-to-day job? Did you hear it is going to provide you with 100% job security?
Pharmacy informatics is one of the newer fields in pharmacy. Because of this, there are a number of misconceptions about the field. Today, we’re going to bust some myths.
Current Job Market
“There are so many pharmacy informatics jobs and it keeps expanding!”
There is no denying that the latest results of the BLS survey for pharmacists is disturbing. There’s a projected overall -3% job loss in the next 10 years according to the latest BLS survey. But how does this affect pharmacy informatics roles?
There’s not enough information to know exactly what will happen in the pharmacy informatics field, but we can make an educated guess. According to the BLS statistics, there is predicted to be 6,700 new hospital/healthcare pharmacist positions. If we extrapolate the number of informatics pharmacists using a ratio of 2 informatics pharmacists per 40 pharmacist FTEs, this gives us 335 new informatics pharmacy roles in hospital systems, which is where a majority of pharmacy informatics positions are located. Having just 335 new pharmacy informatics roles means that the job market is still just going to be as competitive as ever.
Having said that, there are other nuances that are not factored in that may increase or decrease the 335 estimate. The BLS data does not account for how jobs have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as reductions in the number of healthcare positions across the field. In addition, we used a ratio of 2 informatics pharmacists per 40 FTE hospital pharmacists from our personal experiences, but there are many organizations that may be understaffed and have a lower ratio of informatics pharmacists to hospital pharmacists. This makes 335 an overestimate of the job growth. However, health tech startups, industry, AI, and other technologies are not considered, so 335 can also be an underestimated value in the growth of pharmacy informatics and technology roles. Despite these nuances, the actual growth may not be too far from the estimate, which means that pharmacy informatics will still remain highly competitive.
Unclear Job Roles
“Pharmacy informatics roles are clearly defined so I know exactly how to get the right training!”
There are many different pharmacy informatics jobs that a pharmacist can have, but do not make the mistake of thinking that it means there are many jobs in pharmacy informatics. The job titles of a pharmacist working in pharmacy informatics can be any of the following:
- Informatics pharmacist
- Medication management pharmacist
- Pharmacy data analyst
- Pharmacy informatics specialist
- Pharmacy informatics analyst
- Pharmacy project manager
- Pharmacy clinical core systems manager
- … the list goes on
Because of the unclear roles, you may not know exactly what you’ll be doing at the organization you will be working for. It is difficult to know if you possess the right skills to provide value to the organization so it would be difficult to get the right training. Unfortunately, there is no one-size fits all approach.
Pharmacy Technicians, Competition, and Pay Cuts
“You can always get highly paid in specialized roles like pharmacy informatics!”
In our experience, one of the reasons there is high competition is that in some of the job roles, a pharmacy technician and a pharmacist would be competing for the same position. For example, a pharmacy data analyst or a pharmacy informatics analyst does not necessarily require the applicant to be a pharmacist; they can be someone who just has pharmacy experience such as a pharmacy technician. In fact, some pharmacy technicians can be the best pharmacy informatics analysts out there as long as there is some supervision by a pharmacist.
Because you as pharmacists may be competing with pharmacy technicians in some of these roles, the role of an analyst may not pay as high as you would expect a pharmacist to be paid. These roles that do not require pharmacist training might result in you being willing to take a pay cut to remain competitive against pharmacy technicians. For the roles that require pharmacist training, they fall into the more-competitive bucket and you’d need to have the right training and experience to be considered.
Clinical & Operational Knowledge
“I don’t need to know a lot of clinical and operational knowledge to be a pharmacy informaticist. I feel very comfortable with computers and my technology skills are all I need!”
A big misconception about pharmacy informatics is that you don’t need clinical knowledge or that you need very little of it to perform your informatics duties. Related to that is the misconception that you don’t need to know how the medication use process works since you’re working only on technology. This is very far from the truth, because as an informatics pharmacist, you’re still a pharmacist first. Your training and experience as a pharmacist is what makes you valuable in the role and your colleagues in the informatics and information systems teams will lean on you for that pharmacy knowledge. If you do not have the clinical training or operational experience, you are no different than a data analyst who can be hired at a most cost-effective manner by the organization.
Job Security
“Pharmacy informatics jobs deal with technology so that means job security!”
Just because you’re trained in a specialized field like pharmacy informatics, this does not mean you are irreplaceable. Pharmacy informatics specialists are niche roles and they may seem to be “necessary”, but the benefits of a pharmacy informaticist are sometimes not as apparent to organizations as pharmacists working in staffing roles. Because of this, when pharmacy positions are downsized, specialization roles such as informatics pharmacists, may be the first ones to go unless you can show very clearly the value that your role brings to the organization.
No Golden Ticket
“If I get these certifications, I will get a job in pharmacy informatics!”
No matter what certifications, certificates, degrees, or courses you take, no coursework will 100% guarantee that you will get into pharmacy informatics. It really does require hard work beyond just coursework and expanding your network. A common mantra is that it’s “who you know”, but take it a step further and remember it’s also about who knows you; expanding your network is more than just reaching out and making those connections but you also need to maintain those relationships and show you have the ability to do what’s needed.
We at the Pharmacy Informatics Academy will be providing a free, introductory course for pharmacy informatics, but that is by far NOT a golden ticket to pharmacy informatics. You will still need to build your experience, expand your network, and be open to opportunity in order to seek a role in pharmacy informatics.
Conclusion
We are aware that this article sounds negative and may discourage some of you. However, we wanted to provide you with full transparency about the pharmacy informatics field so you can make an informed decision if you are still interested in pursuing this pathway.
We want to bring back the purpose of why we started the Academy, which is to bridge the education gap in pharmacy informatics. We started this Academy because, even though we were highly interested in pharmacy informatics early in our pharmacy education, there were very few opportunities to learn and gain experiences. We want to provide an educational avenue to explore to those that are truly interested in the informatics profession, instead of leaving it as just being another “mystical” field of pharmacy. This may lead to a longer runway for success for those pursuing the field.
As mentioned in the Difficulty Reality of Pharmacy Informatics article, it’s not a cakewalk and you will need to work hard and be persistent to persevere. If you think pharmacy informatics is easy to break into where you can kick-back, not need any clinical or operational knowledge, and have a role that provides you with 100% job security, then pharmacy informatics might not be for you.
//Disclaimer
The views expressed in this articles are our own and do not reflect the views of our respective employers.
