Whether we're talking about pharmacy technicians, pharmacists, or nurses, the preceptors who are in the field are hard to come by. I think there is a lot of burnout, there are a lot of students out there, and we are definitely overtaxing the system. I also think that the people working within some professions are not convinced that this is part of their professional requirement, that it is their obligation to have teaching for the people coming into their profession. I think that's happening.
Part of the answer is that we need to increase the amount of simulation we're using to replace actual clinical hours, but for our accrediting bodies to agree to that, we need to do research showing that it will inform and impact practice.
So I think we need to do simulation, and we need funding for it, and we need to do research on the effectiveness and how it informs practice.