"This is Dr. Frasier Crane, and I'm listening." So started many of the popular sitcom episodes of Frasier which spanned more than a decade.

The truth is, while I spend much of my day talking, presenting, teaching and writing, I'm listening, too. And I love hearing from my fellow pharmacists and pharmacy students about their current views and concerns for our profession.

From time to time, I look through the recent emails I have received and responded to. Having done so today, it occurred to me that five issues appear to be on the hearts and minds of many of my colleagues. While I admittedly receive emails from a rather small sampling of the nearly 300,000 licensed U.S. pharmacists, I think they represent a larger voice and provide a reasonable reflection of some of the biggest concerns pharmacists have today.

Here are the top five concerns I hear most about from my fellow professionals in pharmacy.

1. Job availability

The most frequent concerns I am contacted about these days is job availability and advice about finding a great pharmacy job. An email from a recent pharmacy grad I just received last week said: "I want to go into compounding, but after contacting and sending my CV to all the compounding pharmacies in this area, I was told there are just no openings right now. I also applied to various hospital and retail positions but silence on that front as well."

She's not alone.

The hard truth is that concerns about the job market are unlikely to change anytime soon, with more retail store closures and mergers going on in the industry. The total number of U.S. hospitals is slowly but steadily shrinking as well, while new pharmacy schools keep opening up all the time.

2. Patient safety and pharmacy errors

With fewer pharmacies filling more prescriptions than ever, many pharmacists have expressed concerns about the safety of the community pharmacy workplace. A recent student of mine, preparing to graduate and potentially enter the retail pharmacy career path, asked me, "What advice can you give to pharmacists who find themselves in a dangerously busy store?"

It's a great question. I wish I had a great answer. My advice was to remind her that protecting the public (i.e. patient safety) was her first priority. Be open and honest about your concerns with your staff and teach them how to help you. And if the work volume is impacting the quality of your own life, then take deliberate steps to find a better job.

3. Ageism

Maybe because I have been around the block a few times, experienced pharmacists are not reluctant to be honest with me about their concerns regarding ageism in this profession. While I am not convinced that ageism occurs more often in pharmacy than in other careers, I am certain it exists in our profession — and we should be honest about it.

This is a tough topic, and my heart goes out to those who have had to deal with it personally.

4. Entrepreneurship

More pharmacists than ever before — or so it seems to me — are launching out into new opportunities. Some of these are clearly utilizing their pharmacy education to create new services, products and businesses. But others are taking things in a totally different direction.

I have heard from pharmacists who have taken up writing, consulting, movie making and even modeling. They say necessity if the mother of invention, and maybe the reality of our job market and opportunities have given birth to a great entrepreneurial spirit among my fellow apothecaries.

To all such pharmacists out there, I say, "Go for it!"

5. Pharmacy ownership and profitability

Connected with entrepreneurship are questions about owning a pharmacy and managing it profitably. I have been in pharmacy management for many years. I know the pains and pressures to try and turn a profit in an industry with slim to negative margins.

I have talked to great and gutsy pharmacists who have had to sell their stores because they just couldn't make it work. But I've also talked to many others who have found a way, in their market, to carve out a niche that resulted in a successful business.

While ownership is a scary step, it is a road many others have traveled with success, and pharmacists should not rule out the idea if they are ready to do what it takes to make it work.

So those are the top five concerns, gathered from a somewhat unscientific browsing of my own emails, Facebook messages, tweets and conversations.

What are the biggest concerns on your mind? Go ahead. Tell me. I'm listening.