Making a difference for the profession

Healthcare workforce shortages are felt across the globe in all professions. The WHO highlighted for its European region that countries are currently facing severe challenges related to their healthcare workforce that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic and that have been exacerbated by it.1 In addition to individuals leaving the healthcare professions due to increasing workloads and unmanageable staffing situations, the healthcare workforce is ageing.2 A demographic shift of a large section of the workforce into retirement age threatens to impact human resources in all European health professions. Response in the form of adequate workforce planning is urgently needed.

Scientific achievements, for example, in the field of advanced therapy medicinal products, are leading to increasingly complex medication-related problems, such as specific handling, preparations and related issues. In addition, new competencies and tasks widened the scope of hospital pharmacist involvement in multiprofessional teams in the hospital setting and beyond. Medicines reconciliation, medication optimisation, bedside counselling or being part of the antimicrobial stewardship team are just a few of the clinical pharmacy services that should be provided to all patients across Europe by hospital pharmacists as part of the multidisciplinary care team. A resilient workforce is required to ensure the availability of these vital services.

Other aspects necessitating a future-proof pharmacy workforce are the increasing individualisation of care, growing medicine shortage problems requiring interventions by the hospital pharmacy workforce, and rising healthcare costs. This can be addressed with the help of pharmacy expertise linked to the procurement of medicines and medical devices and through health technology assessments, but it is also associated with larger requirements for the workforce, such as handling the often very specific needs of patients. Another very important area for optimal patient outcomes and safety is the interface of care. There is a growing need for highly educated …