How to Become a Pharmacist

Are you thinking about what a Pharmacist do? A medication must undergo checks and permissions before being approved by a doctor. It is tested in a laboratory, analyzed for dosage and side effects, and only then instructions for prescription are formulated. The drugs then undergo clinical trials and only then they are launched into the market after researching all the potential effects of the drug. It is all involved in the pharmacy career in India. The role of pharmacist in the treatment of a patient is as important as a doctor’s role. A Pharmacist is also responsible for bringing new medication to different medical professionals. 

The pharmacist job does not really end here. By interacting with medical practitioners and distributors for any adverse reactions, symptoms, and allergies, he or she researches and tracks all medications and commodities with consumer surveys. Pharmacy essentially covers everything from the food you eat to the cosmetics, lifestyle products, safety, and chemical items you use that contribute to your well-being.

Regulation

A career as a pharmacist requires regulating drugs by tracking medication therapies and by providing apt guidance on various treatments. A Pharmacist can provide medicines in rural areas, as the doctors in rural areas are in low quantity.

Coordination

Pharmacists are also responsible for coordinating and directing the workflow of the technicians, they are required to check prescriptions as well as preparation, costs, audits, and branding.

Domain understanding

A career as pharmacist requires a pharmaceutical understanding of healthcare personnel through involvement in medical programmes. A pharmacist is responsible for training pharmacy staff, graduates, apprentices, externals, and medical professionals. A Pharmacist is required to maintain databases of illegal substances and eliminate expired and defective medicines from the stock of pharmacies.

Supervision

The role of the Pharmacist is to comply with federal and state drug laws in accordance with the state pharmacy board, drug enforcement administration, and Food and drug administration by monitoring the examination of nursing units.

Patient service

The role of pharmacist is to serve patients by planning drugs, providing the multidisciplinary healthcare team with pharmaceutical information, tracking drug therapies for patients, preparing drugs by evaluating and analyzing directions from doctors, and recognizing medical discrepancies.

There are several sub-disciplines or types of a pharmacist. Individuals can serve in the health and pharmaceutical industry with the job roles mentioned below. 

Bio Chemist: A biochemist is a research professional involved in the study of the physical principles of living things and biological processes such as cell development, growth, heredity, and diseases. He or she conducts experiments to alter the properties of DNA, RNA, and cells to study various diseases and develop medicines to cure them. 

Chemist: A chemist researches and designs processes that include oil refining, and petrochemical processes that reduce pollution and use of energy. He or she may specialize in various areas of chemistry such as analytical, physical and theoretical, macromolecular, medical, organic, medical, and material chemistry. 

Medical Sales Representative:  Medical sales representatives are liable for marketing a company's products to consumers, physicians, pharmacists, and nurses, including medications, prescription medication, and medical equipment.

Clinical Research Coordinator: Clinical research associates support providing plans and tracking clinical trials of experimental medications to determine their advantages and risks. A clinical research coordinator is also a related job role to a career as a pharmacist.

Drug Inspector: The drug inspector seems to be a professional in evaluating the effectiveness, reliability, and safety of medication from its manufacture until the sale. He or she audits pharmaceutical shops and collects samples to confirm if synthetic drugs actually exist. It is a senior-level role in a career as a pharmacist. 

Regulatory Affairs Officer: Regulatory Affairs officer functions for clinical, pharmaceutical, testing, and other manufacturers of medicines to guarantee that the products of their organization follow legal requirements. It is one of the reputed job roles in a career as a pharmacist. 

An individual with a degree in pharmacology specialization works for drugs for Pharmacy Industry research and development. A Pharmacist involves in testing examining and modifying drugs established according to Pharmacy Regulations standards. An Individual who opts for a career as a pharmacist plays a vital role in helping patients get the best outcomes from their drugs. He or she plans and dispenses medications, ensures accurate drugs and doses, avoids adverse medication reactions, and educates patients about the safe and proper use of their drugs. A Pharmacist is typically employed mainly in neighbourhood pharmacies like those in grocery stores and pharmacy stores. 

Does Pharmacist require travelling?

Not Likely

A career as a pharmacist does not require travelling much, unless and until there is an emergency. He or she spends their working hours in pharmaceutical firms, hospitals, physician offices, and speciality clinics.

Employment Shifts

Full Time, Part Time

A career as a pharmacist falls in a certain shift. He or she usually works full-time in laboratories or in pharmacies. The work hour begins in the early morning and ends in mid evenings. Individuals do not require to work in rotational shifts. He or she spends their time researching and creating new medicines or dispensing medicines to the patients. Several pharmacists is employed on a part-time basis in drug stores.

Employment Nature

Permanent, Contractual

As far as the nature of employment is concerned, it is usually permanent in nature. However, in case there is an inspection to be done or some survey, that can be taken up on a contractual basis. Therefore, we can say a career as pharmacist provides both types of employment contractual as well as permanent.

Work Place

Laboratory, pharmaceutical, clinical lab, healthcare facility

Individuals who opt for a career as pharmacist work in a safe, friendly climate. The pharmacist provides several workplaces such as pharmaceutical firms, laboratories, hospitals, physicians' offices, and drug stores. He or she can be found working in nursing homes, poison control centres, intensive care units, cardiac care units, and other healthcare facilities. He or she works on weekends and in the evening hours. Some pharmacists do part-time jobs as well. Most pharmacists work about forty hours a week, while self-employed pharmacists work about 50 hours a week.

Presence in Geographical Area

Rural, Semi-urban, Urban

A career as a pharmacist is a professional who develops medicines for various diseases and disorders. For any region of the world, whether it's an urban area or rural area, a pharmacist is as important as hospitals and small clinics in any of the human-populated locations. Urban areas provide better opportunities for individuals in careers as pharmacists as compared to rural areas. New Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, and Mumbai provide flourishing career opportunities to pharmacists.

Time Pressure

Likely

A Career as a pharmacist involves working under time pressure and tight deadlines. Apart from performing their research and work, pharmacists are also required to supervise and verify the work done by their team members.

Overtime Details

A career as pharmacists involves working extended hours on several occasions. They work usually eight to nine hours a day. During emergencies, it can go up to working 10 to 12 hours a day. Individuals who opt for a career as pharmacists also requires to work extended hours to meet deadlines for the development of drugs. 

Weekly Hours of Work

Min 45 Hours

A Pharmacist requires a minimum of 45 working hours a week. This can increase if there is an emergency. Work hours often get extended depending on the deadline. An Individual who opts for a career as a pharmacist is often required to work on holidays and weekends. He or she gets weekly offs, but it is not necessary that his or her day off falls on Saturday or Sunday.

You must be wondering how to become a pharmacist. So, in this section, we will be answering the most commonly asked question that how to become a pharmacist. In order to make a career as a pharmacist one must possess some skills. Some skills required by a pharmacist are mentioned below:

Accuracy: As far as the pharmaceutical industry is concerned, an eye for detail is practically a matter of survival, so there is no scope for the mistake. Whereas human beings make errors naturally, the repercussions do not reside exclusively with the pharmacist, for example, the wrong form of insulin may be utterly devastating to a patient with diabetes. Whether reading the abysmal handwriting of the doctor, entering the information into the computer system, or correctly measuring ingredients, precision is important.

Communication Skills: These are some of the essential aspects of a career as a pharmacist. It requires strong communication skills to prescribe medicines to patients without any error, and afterwards check their knowledge of it. It might also be difficult to understand why a patient requires a particular medication and identify the adverse health effects.

Craft Knowledge: Considering the work's fast-paced nature, pharmacists could take the time to properly describe a patient's prescription to them and explain the larger impact it could have on their lives. 

Multitasking: Pharmacists are busy conducting activities that may possibly have consequences of life or death, they are often responding to requests, communicating with other patients, and maintaining certain administrative protocols that are observed.

Analytical Skills: While they are experts on how drugs work with each other and with the body, it is difficult to learn completely. Pharmacists should pursue their work with an objective mind and, when possible, refer to the relevant references, and also take a rational and sensible approach to any choices they make about medication for a patient.

Mathematical Skills: Pharmacists require strong mathematical skills. It may sound strange, but sometimes people underestimate how much pharmacists depend on knowledge of science and mathematics. Numerical skills are important, starting with something as basic as measuring how many tablets a patient requires to figure out more complex variable dosages. The same holds true for scientific skills. Pharmacists need to have an in-depth knowledge of chemistry and biology, it is vital that new and complex information can be quickly assimilated as it is available.

Managerial Skills: A career as a pharmacist requires managing skills to multitask. Depending on the position of employment and the system in place, a pharmacist may be responsible for coordinating technicians and vending machines as well as handling expenditures, controlling stock levels, and ensuring accurate documentation.

Interpersonal Management: Pharmacists require figuring out how to manage doctors who really don't like being challenged, and anxious patients who are concerned regarding sitting for their prescriptions, mastering communication skills requires dedication, patience, and a great personality. An important part of making the cycle work smoothly is being able to take care of the damaged egos and hurt feelings.

Supervisory Skills: Pharmacists would have to be able to educate the junior pharmacists and also pharmacy technicians and pass their expertise and experience on. It is a necessity in the United Kingdom since aspiring pharmacists must undergo fifty-two weeks of knowledge-based professional development until completing their certification test.

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We have mentioned below various certifications that Pharmacists can opt to upgrade their skills.

Junior Pharmacist: A Junior  Pharmacist is a professional who verifies the dosage of the medication prescribed and checks the patient is not at risk due to medication. A Junior Pharmacist educates patients on how and when medicines should be taken and the side effects of medications.

Senior Pharmacist: A Senior Pharmacist is an experienced professional who reviews for safety levels of newly manufactured drugs, recommended drugs with proper diets, and not prescribed medications. A Senior Pharmacist suggests suitable types of medicines and warns against the overdosage of the medicines. 

In India, the pharmaceutical sector is rising at a faster rate, marked by a series of mergers and acquisitions and an increase in foreign direct investment. Indian pharmaceutical companies' production costs are up to sixty-five per cent lower than those of US firms and about half those of European companies. Indian pharmaceutical development has been at a faster rate. The factor behind this is related to the globalization, democratization, and modernization of the Indian economy and partly due to an increasing rate of the ageing population and modern medical and diagnostic technologies. 

Chemical research may have been accomplished by identifying new medicines or by developing them. A pharmacy career in India has lots of scope in different parts of the country such as Chennai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Noida, and Gurgaon. India's pharmaceutical industry is the most mature and innovative among both developed and developing countries.

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