Pharmacist

Common tasks

• Review prescriptions to assure accuracy, to ascertain the needed ingredients, and to evaluate their suitability.
• Collaborate with other health care professionals to plan, monitor, review, or evaluate the quality or effectiveness of drugs or drug regimens, providing advice on drug applications or characteristics.
• Work in hospitals or clinics or for Health Management Organizations (HMOs), dispensing prescriptions, serving as a medical team consultant, or specializing in specific drug therapy areas, such as oncology or nuclear pharmacotherapy.
• Provide information and advice regarding drug interactions, side effects, dosage, and proper medication storage.
• Provide specialized services to help patients manage conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, smoking cessation, or high blood pressure.
• Analyze prescribing trends to monitor patient compliance and to prevent excessive usage or harmful interactions.
• Maintain records, such as pharmacy files, patient profiles, charge system files, inventories, control records for radioactive nuclei, or registries of poisons, narcotics, or controlled drugs.
• Prepare sterile solutions or infusions for use in surgical procedures, emergency rooms, or patients' homes.
• Compound and dispense medications as prescribed by doctors and dentists, by calculating, weighing, measuring, and mixing ingredients, or oversee these activities.
• Assess the identity, strength, or purity of medications.

Most important skills

Reading Comprehension

Reading work-related information.

Active Listening

Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.

Speaking

Talking to others.

Time Management

Managing your time and the time of other people.

Writing

Writing things for co-workers or customers.

Judgment and Decision Making

Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.

Social Perceptiveness

Understanding people's reactions.

Service Orientation

Looking for ways to help people.