Pharmacy is the third largest health profession in the United States. In 1997, there were approximately 170,000 licensed pharmacists in the United States. Of these, some 43,000 worked in community pharmacies, with the others employed in all areas of health care and medical research. Pharmacists are employed in hospitals, nursing homes, home health care companies, managed care organizations, clinics, and physicians' offices. Other pharmacists work for federal agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. Still others are faculty members at colleges and universities.

In the past, pharmacists were thought of as dispensers of medication, where their traditional role would be to count or pour medications. However, the role of the profession has evolved to include pharmaceutical care: the responsible provision of drug therapy to achieve specific outcomes that improve a patient's quality of life, and disease state management, and the systematic review of a...