Over the years, pharmacy as a profession has seen a lot of highs and lows, from being one of the least opted professions to a much favoured one. While dearth of qualified pharmacist was a major issue at one point of time, today dearth of job opportunities have become a major bane for this profession which has been grappling with issues like outdated educational curriculum and huge inflow of pharmacy graduates etc.
The Gujarat State Pharmacy Council (GSPC), a statutory body constituted by the Government of Gujarat under the Pharmacy Act of 1948, feels that pharmacists in the country are not getting their due due to the hackneyed educational system in the country. Apart from the out dated educational system prevalent in the country, a major factor that needs immediate attention is the change in the government policies towards the pharmacy graduates.
According to Pradip Trivedi, president of the GSPC, it is high time the government took pro- active steps for absorbing B Pharm and M Pharm graduates so that these graduates get greater opportunities in the job market.
Need for greater exposure
GSPC and Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) have been struggling to get across their demand to the state as well as central governments to add pharma graduates in the list of qualifications needed for job requirements. While B. Com, B A or BSc graduates are included in the required qualification criterion, a B Pharm or an M Pharm do not find mention in it. GSPC states that all their demands in this regard have fallen flat till now in spite of the fact that scores of the pharmacy graduates are sitting jobless due to the lack of timely government intervention in this matter.
“We have been pressurising the government to change its policies with respect to employment to generate greater job opportunities for the pharmcy graduates wherever possible. Change in the government policies by inclusion of pharmacy graduates is the only way towards addressing the issue of lack of job openings in this segment. Lack of job opportunities is affecting the reputation of the profession pushing more students to choose other streams. Colleges are forced to down shutters due to scarcity of students which will soon become a major issue as it will create a huge dearth of pharmacists in the years to come,” he points out.
From theory to practical
The council feels that it is high time to rethink and strategise newer techniques, so that focus is on developing the Indian pharmacy educational system as a respected profession at par with the international standards. Experts feel that the pharmacy education in the country needs to undergo a major face lift from being just a theory oriented educational system to a practical based system, where practical training of the pharmacist should be made mandatory to expose them to practical nuances of the profession.
Industry feels that this will be a win-win situation for the pharmacists as it will not only help them in efficiently dealing with their responsibilities but also will help in attracting more students to take up pharmacy as a profession. Experts fear that if these issues are not sorted out at the earliest, it is going to be a huge problem in the future wherein the situation will be lot like the earlier times where pharmacists were a rare species.
According to Trivedi, the state council like its parent body PCI, is keen on salvaging the reputation and improving the scope of this profession by adopting various corrective measures specifically focused on stimulating the profession. “Under the present situation, pharmacy as a profession is facing a lot of challenges to sustain in a stiff competitive market due to various political and apolitical factors. Considering all this, it is important to have a re-look at the present model adopted so as to change it according to the demands and the requirements of the time. There is an urgent need to reinstate and establish the credibility of pharmacists in the society and the importance of pharmacy as a profession and this can be done only through collective measures. The government's attitude towards pharmacy requirements need to change and this can be achieved only by changing the existing job policies so that pharmacy students also get enough job opportunities,” he points out.
Better representation, need of the hour
With a view to ensure an effective representation at the centre, the GSPC feels that there needs to be better participation and representation of all the stakeholders which includes academicians, industry, trade and researchers in the PCI. Experts feel that today there is a disparity in the PCI membership, as most of the representatives are from the academics which needs to be changed to ensure fair and equal representation of all the stakeholders at the centre.
An industry expert pointed out that for the better growth of this segment , there needs to be healthy mix of all the stakeholders in national body representing pharmacy as a profession, as they represent the cause of the whole industry. Another highly placed source from the industry opined that participation of different stakeholders within the council will help in getting diverse and more effective ideas to effectively deal with the issues and challenges faced by this profession.
GSPC initiatives
In order to train and enable the pharmacists in the state to face the new challenges and requirements, the GSPC has initiated a lot of pro-active measures to give a facelift to the pharmacy education system in the state.
Over the years, GSPC has taken keen interest in not only simplifying the role of pharmacists by making it information technology (IT) savvy but also by introducing a slew of educational programmes to enhance the role of pharmacists as community pharmacists.