Responsibilities of a Pharmacist
Other than drug dispensing and assisting the patients, a pharmacist also has to undertake certain duties and responsibilities. These are, monitoring the health of a patient and also his or her health progress, providing advice to the health practitioners and the physician with the dosages, selection and also various effects of all the medications, seeing to the working of all the therapy in a patients, advising him or her and also providing answers to all the doubts, regarding prescribed drugs, their side effects, interaction with the other drugs etc. Apart from these important duties and responsibilities, a pharmacist must also provide with information and at the same time recommendation related to OTC drugs or the over the counter drugs.
Pharmacists might require to provide advice related to exercise, diet, stress management etc, aid the patients with the management and control of various health issues like, asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking cessation etc. He or she also has to undertake the duty to advice all patients related to the medical supplies and equipments, especially those that are durable in nature. Some paperwork responsibilities like, insurance, medical forms etc has to be completed by the pharmacist on the behalf of third party.
Skills Required Are
Pharmacist must possess most importantly communications skills. This is because, he or she has to provide explanation to the nature of treatment to the patients, do the coordination with the other health professionals, and manage the staff when required, whether present in the hospital or the community.
Eye for detail, is another important skill that a pharmacist must possess in order to succeed in this field. This is because he or she has to dispense the appropriate and correct medicines to the patients in the right dose. Therefore, detailing and focus is required in this context, as a small mistake can cause a person's life too. He or she has to have organizational skills, as the job can be strenuous and hectic.
Educational Requirements in This Field
Candidates aspiring to be pharmacists must have a degree in Doctor of Pharmacy, in the form of Pharm.D. Graduates would require taking the 4 years' pharmacy programs to advance in this field, especially, graduates having specialization in biology, chemistry, physics, social science and humanity.
Salaries of pharmacists are around $98,960 per year and some even get paid in hourly wages, with $50 to $60 an hour.
If you happen to be a licensed pharmacist, then you would be able to find opportunities in hospitals, pharmacies, corporation etc. All these would also depend on your experience and your basic qualifications.
