One of the largest growing fields of jobs opportunities, pharmacy is today considered
to be a very important and significant job option. Firstly, it provides the person
to take up a job in the medical field in the pharmaceutical field and also in the
field of business where the retailing of medicines is considered. Another great
opportunity lies in the field of research and development.
Eligibility
To become a pharmacist, the candidate needs to have completed either a Bachelor’s
degree in pharmacy or a diploma in Pharmacy after the required school education
in Science. Taking up a Master’s degree can lead to better job opportunities.
Required Skills for a career in pharmacy:
Apart from satisfying the eligibility criteria, some skills required by a pharmacist
include:
- High level of efficiency in mathematical skills
- Reading skills to understand the pharmacological implications of certain medications
- Communication skills in both speaking and writings,
- Team building and working skills,
- Critical thinking.
How to become a Pharmacist?
Apart from the required academic qualifications that is mandatory to become a pharmacist,
the candidate also needs to work as an intern in hospitals to gain hands on experience.
Job Description
One of the basic duties of the pharmacists is to prepare the medications, providing
pharmacological information, maintaining stock of medicines in a hospital and take
overall charge of the pharmacy in a hospital. Besides, the pharmacist has other
responsibilities that include:
- It is the duty of the pharmacists to detect any therapeutic anomalies in the preparation
of medications.
- Compounding, packing and labeling medicines in order to dispense with them.
- Involved in the tutoring of the interns working in the hospital
- Provide pharmacological information to all in the health care professionals.
Career Prospects
The career prospects for a person interested in taking up a career in pharmacy is
plenty and some of them include:
Clinical pharmacy in which the pharmacists work in the hospital and who is in charge
of keeping stock in the medical pharmacy in the hospital. They are also in charge
of the entire pharmacy, the people working there and stock updating.
Careers in Nuclear Pharmacy: The nuclear pharmacists work in the scan section of
the hospital responsible of the administering of the dyes and other radioactive
materials that are used for digital imaging procedures. This is a highly specific
job so the nuclear pharmacist must be specially trained for the job.
Specified pharmacists are also responsible for cancer patients.
Apart from these three careers in pharmacy in the hospital scenarios, the pharmacists
also have options in non-medical environments like coordinating between insurance
companies and medical institutions regarding the patients’ medical cover. Another
option is the teaching fields where they can train students in the pharmacy institutions.
High job prospects in pharmaceutical companies for research and development of medicines
is also a very successful option.
Salary
The job of a pharmacist has all the opportunities to earn a handsome and very lucrative
salary, but it would largely depend on the place of work. Pharmacists in highly
reputed multi-national pharmaceutical companies would be able to earn a lot more
than pharmacists who work in the low profile health clinics. However, there are
many multi-specialty hospital that offer highly paid jobs to pharmacists.