Health professionals who are responsible for distributing or dispensing prescription medicines to patients are called pharmacists. Pharmacists give advice to medical practitioners on medication selection, dosages, side effects, and interactions. They can also help in monitoring the health and development of patients in response to drug therapy.
What do Pharmacists do?
They give information and provide recommendations regarding over-the-counter drugs. Furthermore, pharmacist can own and manage drugstores. Thus, they can supervise employees, and handle general managerial and administrative duties as well.
Pharmacist Salary
The median annual salaries of pharmacists in 2009 were $109,180. In 2010, according to the Pharmacy Compensation Survey, clinical pharmacists and mail order staff pharmacists earn an average of $113,400 and $109,300 respectively. Also, retail staff pharmacists earn $113,600 while hospital staff pharmacists receive $117,600. The highest earning pharmacists in 2010 are the pharmacy directors. Furthermore, the more years of experience a pharmacist have, the higher the salaries they are to earn.
How to Become a Pharmacist
To become a pharmacist, one must complete pre-pharmacy college level coursework for 1-2 years. The subjects included here are chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, social sciences and humanities. They must also obtain high grades on the Pharmacy College Admission Test.
A student must also choose a pharmacy school which should be recognized by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education. A future pharmacist will have to obtain a degree in Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy that lasts for five years while a degree in Doctor of Pharmacy takes about 6 or more years. The degree in Doctor of Pharmacy comprises of subjects such as pharmacology, pharmaceutics, toxicology, pharmaceutical chemistry, and pharmacy administration.
After obtaining a degree, a graduate pharmacist must pass the licensure examination of a specific state in order to become a licensed pharmacist. After passing the exam and becoming a licensed pharmacist, one must undergo an internship program under the supervision of a senior licensed pharmacist. A person can also continue his professional education by attending seminars and undergoing training for their career advancement.
There are lots of career paths for a pharmacist. A pharmacist can take retail pharmacy careers in drug stores or grocery stores. They can also take the clinical pharmacy career wherein they can work with other health care team members. The can also become nuclear pharmacist in which they will deal with radioactive materials. Moreover, they can turn into Home infusion and Chemotherapy, a pharmacist career path in charge of mixing chemotherapy drugs.
Aside from the ones mentioned, there are still many career paths for pharmacists that they can take. Pharmacists just like any other health professions have specializations as well. They can specialize in ambulatory care pharmacy, nutrition support pharmacy, psychiatric pharmacy, geriatric pharmacy, veterinary pharmacist, pharmacotherapy, and many more.
Important Skills to have as a Pharmacist
A pharmacist has to possess 4 basic qualities. The first one is technical skills. A competent pharmacist should have a comprehensive knowledge of pharmacology. Next, they should have good communication skills as they will be interacting with various kinds of people. They should also be precise because the drug that they will be dispensing is a matter of life and death. Lastly, a pharmacist should have teamwork skills because they will have to collaborate with doctors, nurses and many other health professionals. For pharmacists planning to run their own drugstores, an in-depth knowledge of business practices will be needed in order for the business to become successful.
Indeed, a pharmacist career is perfect of medicine enthusiast.