Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MAY 29, 2023 19 TOTAL PROJECT SIZE: 25,000 SF Building For Your Success ABLE COIL BOLTON, CT For over 55 years, metal buildings have been a staple of PDS. For this project, we were tasked by Able Coil to build a new state of the art pre-engineered metal office building and renovate their existing 20,000 square foot building into a new manufacturing facility in Bolton CT. Complete with multiple new offices and several specialty rooms, the exterior finish is a multifaceted design complete with Nichiha Vintage Cement siding and ACM paneling, full length store front windows and stone veneer. Structural upgrades to the existing building were necessary to bring it up to code and to support the new solar panel system. With in-house engineering, PDS can design the right building to fit your budget and timeline. SPOTLIGHT ON: PRE-ENGINEERED METAL BUILDINGS 107 Old Windsor Road, Bloomfield, CT 06002 | 860.242.8586 | pdsec.com THINK • PLAN • BUILD Top-ranked program UConn uses 25 to 30 student ambassadors to recruit for its pharmacy school, which offers bachelor's and doctorate degrees in pharmacy, in addition to master's degrees and Ph.D.s in pharmaceu- tics, medicinal chemistry, pharma- cology and toxicology. A big selling point for UConn, Hritcko said, is its research capabilities. The UConn School of Pharmacy sits on 220,000 square feet in one large building. It includes about 198,000 square feet of research space with 84 research labs shared by the biology department, he said. Scientists from major pharma- ceutical companies in the region provide support to UConn's grad- uate programs through collaborative research engagement and teaching in graduate courses, he added. UConn's School of Pharmacy is ranked No. 29 nationally and No. 1 in New England, according to the U.S. News & World Report. Enrollment challenges Recruitment efforts, however, are challenged by a number of factors negatively impacting pharmacy school enrollments, which have been on the decline nationwide since 2015, when the number of first-year professional pharmacy students totaled over 14,000, according to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP). That number is projected to fall to about 9,000 first-year enrollees this year. Meanwhile, the number of doctor of pharmacy graduates is projected to decline precipitously over the next five years, from 14,000 in 2022, to under 10,000 new graduates by 2027, AACP data shows. That will likely exacerbate existing workforce challenges — there is a shortage of about 4,000 phar- macists in the U.S., said Russell Melchert, president of the AACP and dean of the University of Missouri School of Pharmacy. High school graduation rates are going down in many parts of the country, intensifying competition among pharmacy schools to recruit from a smaller applicant pool, Melchert said. There is also growing interest in vocational careers that are experi- encing worker shortages but don't require advanced degrees. The expense of a seven- to eight-year college education can be a deter- rent, Melchert said. To become a pharmacist in Connecticut, one must graduate from an accredited U.S. pharmacy school, complete 1,500 intern hours and be licensed. The pandemic also led to burnout within the pharmacist profession, Melchert said, especially for those who work in community drug stores like CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens, which are among the largest employers of pharmacists in Connecticut. Melchert said he predicts phar- macy student enrollments won't reach pre-pandemic levels until, at the earliest, the end of this decade. While challenges exist, there are silver linings, USJ's Abdelmageed said. There's huge demand for pharma- cists who earn, on average, about $125,000 annually to start, he said. In addition, many new hires are being offered sign-on bonuses. In particular, UConn's Hritcko said there are significant job opportuni- ties for community pharmacists who work for drug-store chains. "We are seeing an evolution of community pharmacy changes," Hritcko said. "They are taking on different roles and just don't count pills anymore. They also test patients, provide immunizations, and not just for the flu. Given the educa- tion they have, they are among the most underutilized health care people out there." USJ pharmacy students in the school's new lab space. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER

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