"I actually did not get a signing bonus," Williams said. "But I know here right now they've got bonuses up to $35,000."

The absence of a signing bonus for Williams was made up in what she described as Target's favorable working environment.

"We don't overwork our pharmacists," Williams said. "A lot of people will put pharmacists in with not enough technician help, and they don't get any lunch breaks, and they just have way too many prescriptions to do all day, every day. It's just a bad working environment."

The growing demand prompted the University of Southern Nevada to open a new pharmacy school in South Jordan. The school admitted its first class of 52 students this fall.

"There is a definite shortage in Utah," said Renee Coffman, dean of the pharmacy college at USN. "The difference between Utah and Nevada was actually pretty striking. Since we've had the school in Nevada we've been able to impact the shortage there. Hopefully, we'll be able to do the same for Utah."

Of the 52 pharmacy students at USN's South Jordan campus, 32 are Utah residents, according to Larry Fannin, USN's Utah campus dean. The university's main campus in Henderson, Nev., admitted 142 people this year.

Yet the shortage of pharmacists is not a result of a lack of interest.

"There are people that want to be pharmacists," Fannin said. "The seats are limited. I think we are approaching 1,700 applications. It generally runs from five to eight applications to one seat."

At the U.'s pharmacy school about 50 students are admitted each year out of 400 to 600 applications, Jorgenson said.

Other challenges facing those considering the profession are rigorous course prerequisites, which include chemistry, anatomy, calculus and physiology.

Chad Holley, 31, of Orem, a first year pharmacy student at USN's Utah campus, said the prerequisites are demanding.

"It cost me a marriage," Holley said. "It's a pain in the butt. There's some hard classes that you have to take to get to this point."

And Fannin said the workload faced by many practicing pharmacists is one downside to the profession.

According to the National Pharmacist Workforce Study, 54 percent of all pharmacists reported their workload as "high" or "excessively high." In addition, 58 percent said that their workload had "increased" or "increased greatly" compared to one year ago.

The survey also noted that between 2000 and 2004, the proportion of pharmacists personally dispensing more than 160 prescriptions daily increased from 23 percent to 36 percent.

And for pharmacists employed in health-care settings, work schedules can include night shifts, holidays and weekends.

"People aren't taking jobs based on salaries," Jorgenson said. "They want benefits. They want good working conditions. They want technical support. They want to be able to use what they learned in school, particularly in new kids coming in now. For them, there is a lot of work-life issues that are very important."

And for Curtis Wickwire, 27, of Reno, Nev., a first-year pharmacy student at USN, the high salaries should not be the motivating reason for entering the profession.

"If you're focused just on the money, I really don't think you're going to make it," Wickwire said. "You might be able to make it through school, but you're not going to enjoy your life after that."

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E-mail: danderton@desnews.com