What is a Pharmacist?
A pharmacist job description can be explained as a medical professional who is educated and possesses the right to dispense drugs to patients prescribed by their physician or from other clinician. The pharmacist knows the chemistry of all drugs that he is selling and how these drugs may affect the human body. They also know how these drugs may interact with each other. Before dispensing each medicine the pharmacist must measure, pack and ensure that the right dose will be administered properly to the patient. A pharmacists’ job is not just to give the prescribed medication to the patients; his job is to advise them how to use the particular medication and which reactions and problems they must avoid.
Education and training
All college graduated pharmacists are required to have a doctorate in Pharmacy degree or PharmD. First they must complete successfully a two years of undergraduate coursework in pharmacy and pass the pharmacy college admission test. The pharmacy coursework is about introducing the students with pharmacy and learning about pharmacy and pre-pharmacy which includes subjects like chemistry, biology, anatomy, physiology and physics. After completing the coursework, students may start with the four years pharmacy program.
Those students who want to earn the PharmD are required to complete several rotations of clinical and pharmaceutical settings. During the PharmD program each student must complete 7 to 10 rotations, and each rotation is 4-6 weeks in length.
Students who are aware that they want to become pharmacists during their college career may spare some time and graduate with a PharmD in approximately six years. Most students have not decided until they finish their college and that is why most of them complete their pharmacist college after eight years.
Pharmacist’s salary
The median expected salary for a pharmacist for the year 2018 in the United States is $126,120. This means that they earn $60.64 an hour. In 2018 there were 314,300 positions opened for a pharmacist job. This number is not expected to expand in the near future. You may do your research before you accept the job offer. The numbers vary from around $87,000 a year to $145,000 a year depending in which city you are located. Here is a list of some cities and how much you can earn working as a pharmacist in those:
What’s not to like about this job?
Doing the same thing for about 15 years and for the same pay is exactly what’s not to like about the pharmacist job. You have to stand on your feet all day and your work will be pretty much repetitive.
