Is there still a pharmacy leadership crisis? A seven-year follow-up assessment

In 2004, the ASHP Scholar-in-Residence program focused on pharmacy leadership, with the objective of quantitatively assessing the current and future pharmacy leadership situations and developing recommendations to avoid a future leadership crisis.1 At that point in time, 80% of directors and 77% of middle managers who responded to the survey anticipated leaving their jobs in the next decade. Only 30% of current practitioners and 62% of pharmacy students at that time indicated that they would seek a leadership position sometime during their career. White’s1 benchmark survey drove a seminal change in thinking about professional leadership, stimulated the development of multiple programs and services, and refocused educational emphasis and policy considerations from purely clinical to include leadership.2 The recommendations embodied in that report led to the development of the ASHP Research and Education Foundation’s Center for Health-System Pharmacy Leadership, a focal point for the development of programs and services targeted to address the leadership crisis.3 In recognition of and response to these forces, the ASHP Board of Directors adopted the ASHP Statement on Leadership as a Professional Obligation in 2011, further emphasizing the responsibility and accountability of each professional to accept this personal development challenge as a critical part of the professional role.4