What is a Pharmacist

A pharmacist may be the person who first comes to one’s mind when having any health issues, starting from a headache to any major health conditions. Because Pharmacists are the most accessible medical professionals in a community. You can see a pharmacist any time and ask anything related to health without making any appointment or giving any consultation fee. At the same time there are more formalities needed to see a Physician or other health professional.

Pharmacists are one of the most trusted professionals in a community. People can be open to talk about their conditions to a Pharmacist. People also come to pharmacies asking for suggestions and to make decisions related to the health field like whether i have to consult a doctor or not, which hospital do I consult like that.

Even sometimes customers after going to some super-specialty hospitals and visiting specialist they will come to pharmacy and ask

“Brother, I went to hospital and they gave me these medicines. For what purpose are all these items? Is this all good to me..?” If the pharmacist says that these medicines are needed for you and this is OK then that makes them happy and confident to take medication. These are the real life answers for the question what is a Pharmacist.

What is a Pharmacist by definition

Pharmacist is a healthcare professional who specializes in the right way to prepare, compound, use, store, control and dispense medications. Pharmacists are involved in all stages of medicines including drug discovery, product development, manufacturing, quality control/analysis, safety and efficacy, marketing and retail.

Pharmacists have good knowledge of mechanism of action, chemical, physical and biochemical nature of medicines, drug uses, side effects and potential drug interactions so that they can provide pharmaceutical care to patients. They help patients to achieve maximum benefits with minimum adverse effects. Pharmacists also help other medical professionals to make correct decisions for providing effective treatment to patients.

Usually Pharmacy professions are controlled in different countries by licensing and required to hold some education qualifications.

What are the qualification required for a Pharmacist

In order to practice as a Pharmacist one should be registered with some board or council organized by Governments for that purpose. Qualifications for registration as a Pharmacist differ from country to country. Some countries require a Doctor in Pharmacy ( Pharm D ), others require Master in Pharmacy ( M Pharm ), most of the countries require Bachelor in Pharmacy ( B Pharm ) and also some countries require Diploma in Pharmacy ( D Pharm ) with prescribed experience as qualification for registration.

What are the different types of Pharmacist

Usually when we speak about pharmacists we only consider the one whom we see in retail pharmacy and hospitals. Actually pharmacy is a wide profession and Pharmacists are involved in all phases of drug development to its administration.

Important types of pharmacists can be described here, it includes,

Community pharmacists
Hospital pharmacists
Clinical pharmacists
Industrial pharmacists
Administrative pharmacists
Analytical pharmacist
Research and development pharmacists
Academic pharmacists
Consultant pharmacists
Nuclear pharmacists etc

Community pharmacists

Community pharmacists are the major part of the pharmacist community; they constitute more than 40 percent. They work in community pharmacies or retail pharmacies. They have direct contact with patients and other health care workers. Their duties include

Collect prescriptions and dispense medicines accurately
Explain patients about correct methods of administration and handling medicines
Conduct patient counseling to educate patients about importance of compliance to dosage regimen, common side effects to be expected and precautions can be taken etc
Monitoring adverse reactions
In some countries they are involved in the immunization and vaccination program
They help customers in selecting Over the counter medications

In order to practice as a Community pharmacist one should have proper knowledge of drugs and their uses, side effects and different dosages. Community pharmacist should have a good relationship with patients and he must make a good trust in his customers.

Hospital Pharmacists

Hospital pharmacists are an important part of a Hospital. They are involved in the ordering, receiving, storing and dispensing medicines and other surgical items required in a Hospital. Most of their duties are similar to that of Community pharmacists but also include

Monitoring effectiveness of all the medicines used in the hospital
Educate other health care workers about storage conditions and other precautions to be taken in handling medicines
They prepare some sterile preparations like Total parenteral nutrition
Compounding some skin preparations for the special needs of patients
Monitoring refilling emergency medicines in hospitals

Hospital pharmacist may also specialize in certain branches of medicines like Oncology, Cardiology, Pediatric etc

Clinical Pharmacists

Clinical pharmacists usually work in hospitals or clinics along with Physicians and other health care workers. They ensure medication prescribed to each patient is accurate and effective at affordable expense. The role of clinical pharmacists is more important in patients receiving multiple medications or multiple ill patients, that there are more chances of drug interactions and unwanted results. A clinical pharmacist should have a good knowledge of all drug interactions, different dose regimens, cost of medicines etc.

Duties of clinical pharmacists include,

Help physicians to prescribe accurate and optimum medications and effective dosage regimen
Study health conditions and medication history of patient to prevent any adverse reactions and drug allergies
Monitor progress and effectiveness of given dosage regimen
Advice patients about the important of medications and dosage in order to achieve best results

Industrial Pharmacists

Industrial pharmacists work in Pharmaceutical industries where they develop and manufacture medicines. Industrial pharmacists usually possess a degree in Pharmacy or Master degree in Pharmaceutics. In the Pharmaceutical industry pharmacists work in different departments like Research and developments, production plants, test laboratories, quality control departments and also in managerial and administrative posts. So their duties will be very different, in common we can list some important duties of Industrial pharmacists,

Research, test and develop drugs and other pharmaceuticals
Ensure proper quality of products that manufactured
Ensure that every processes conducting according to standard operating procedures
Ensure that the products and processes comply with regional and national legislation related to health
Must have updated updated knowledge in latest methods and technologies to develop new medications and improve older ones

In an Industrial pharmacy career the starting phase is little hard work but when one achieves good experience skills then the job becomes very interesting.

Administrative pharmacists

These pharmacists work in the administration areas in private organizations, hospitals and in government sectors. They usually do office work and ensure everything is working properly.

In the private field they may hold managerial posts and oversee the other staff to ensure the overall quality.

In the government sector they hold positions like drug inspectors and inspect different pharmaceutical institutions like community pharmacies, hospitals and pharmaceutical industries to ensure the quality and everything comply with the legislation.

Analytical Pharmacists

Analytical pharmacists usually work in test laboratories in Pharmaceutical industries and also in the government sector. In the private field they ensure all the product batches comply with required quality such that after marketing there will not be any problems.

In the government field they test the samples collected by drug inspectors and determine the quality and purity of the products.

They must have good knowledge in chemical and physical nature of drugs and must be familiar with different test procedures and assays.

Research and Development Pharmacists

R&D pharmacists work in companies and laboratories which develop new medicine or do research in improving existing ones. They make an idea into reality. This consists of several steps

Whenever there is a requirement for a new formulation or method first they conduct a literature survey to collect all the information about similar formulations.
After that they collect all the required ingredients for the preparation.
Then they prepare a test product and conduct all the tests on that.
Once all the tests are passed then they scale up production and pack into final packing and conduct stability studies.
After that product are submitted to registration
After getting registration from authorities bulk production marketing starts

They also conduct post marketing studies to ensure that the products have the required results.

Academic pharmacists

Academic pharmacists work in colleges and Universities meant for teaching pharmacy students.

They educate, teach and train future generations of pharmacists.

Besides teaching they also conduct research on different topics and publish their research works. This helps in the improvement of the pharmacy field and invention of newer products and methods.

Conclusion

Pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professionals in a community
They are specializes in the right way to prepare, compound, use, store, control and dispense medications
The role of pharmacists not only to dispense medications but also include all phases drugs including drug discovery, product development, manufacturing, quality control/analysis, safety and efficacy, marketing and retail
There are different types of pharmacists according to their role

Its me Pharmacist

What is a Pharmacist by definition

What are the qualification required for a Pharmacist