Nearly 9 million Californians live in a pharmacy desert, where the nearest pharmacy is farther away than a supermarket. Now, UC San Francisco is piloting a first-in-the-West program to bolster pharmacists’ numbers — and it starts, for some, behind the drugstore counter.
California is home to about 40,000 pharmacy technicians. Supervised by pharmacists, these health care workers dispense medications, process insurance claims, and even give immunizations. About three-quarters of technicians nationally aspire to a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) degree to become pharmacists, but only 1% follow through.
A new UCSF School of Pharmacy initiative aims change that. This year, the school debuted its PharmTech to PharmD Pathway Program. The free, year-long hybrid initiative offers techs a personalized academic assessment and coursework roadmaps to prepare them to apply for competitive admission to a PharmD program. Monthly seminars cover everything from writing personal statements for applications and acing interviews to exploring student life. Participants also hear from faculty and alums about diverse pharmacy careers — in research, biotech, specialty clinics, and more. Those who complete the program, fulfill the program’s prerequisite course requirements, and apply to UCSF’s PharmD program are guaranteed an interview. The program is open to anyone who has worked as a pharmacy technician within the last five years.
“I am a believer that sometimes people don’t do because they don’t know — they just need a little extra support to help them to realize their dreams,” says School of Pharmacy Executive Vice Dean Sharon L. Youmans, PharmD, MPH, “This program is really to reach out to those who might think that going to pharmacy school is not in the cards for them.”
Funded by UCSF’s School of Pharmacy and the California Health Care Foundation, the program aims to grow the state’s pharmacy workforce, especially in rural areas and those with poor access to health care, such as the Central Valley.
Think of what a PharmD might mean
For many pharmacy technicians, the jump to pharmacist promises a better salary — more than 3 times greater — increased job flexibility, and closer connections with patients — factors that drew Vanessa Pubill and Bibiana Arroyo to join the program’s first cohort this summer.
A former bakery owner, Pubill became a pharmacy technician at the suggestion of her brother, who thought it would be a perfect fit: “I wanted to get into medicine but the ‘clean side of it,’ as people say — I just didn’t see myself dealing with blood.”
Pubill found her way behind the counter at a local retail pharmacy. It wasn’t long before the single mom began to think of what a PharmD might mean for her — and her daughter.
“A pharmacist’s salary is much better than a tech salary: We’d be able to have a stable roof over our heads but also afford other things, like schooling or tutoring,” explains Pubill from her home in Manteca, her daughter tugging at her pants. “I want my child to be able to see the world so that she doesn’t feel boxed in — I think that’s really important as a young woman.”
And a PharmD opens up more job opportunities across the state, she adds. Alongside the draw of an automatic interview to UCSF’s PharmD program, Pubill says the new program has provided the support she needed — all while fitting into her schedule as a working parent.
“Dr. Youmans has really become a mentor: If I have a question, I know I’d be able to call her,” she says of the executive vice dean. “Sometimes you just need reassurance that you’re on track and that someone’s in your corner.”
From clinics to communities
In Modesto, Bibiana Arroyo came to the pharmacy profession after unexpectedly finding herself back in her hometown as a young adult — and unemployed.
“I literally just walked around my neighborhood and knocked at every small business because I didn’t have a car,” she remembers. “I was hired as a pharmacy clerk at this independent pharmacy. Soon after, the owner said he wanted me to become his pharmacy tech.”
More than a decade later, Arroyo now works as a pharmacy technician supervisor for a major health care system in the state, managing nearly two dozen pharmacy techs. Together, her team negotiates with health insurance companies to ensure patients with chronic or complicated illnesses get the medications they need — a skill she first learned while working with UCSF’s cardiology department.
A desire to know more about medications and connect with patients drove her to apply to UCSF’s new pathway program.
“At my community pharmacy, I saw how pharmacists were not just dispensing medication but were counseling patients and serving as an accessible health care resource,” Arroyo says. “I can’t tell you how many times a patient came in and would trust a pharmacist’s word even more than what their doctors. It opened my mind about how vital pharmacists are in clinical settings but also in communities.”
UCSF staff and faculty helped Arroyo identify the courses she needs to apply to a PharmD program. She plans to complete the courses at a local community college. The guaranteed interview with UCSF PharmD degree program once she’s done, is something that she says many in the program could only have dreamt of.
“Earlier in my career, I never envisioned that I would want to become a pharmacist,” she says. “Now, pursuing a PharmD is, I feel, the best way to channel my passion for the science of medications and improving patients’ lives.”
