The Requerements Needed To Become A Pharmacist

The career I am interested in pursuing is being a Pharmacist. This career is both challenging and will support me and my children. I am interested in this career field because of how the human body interacts with other chemicals and even the food you eat and how this can change the composition inside your body. The fact that I could help to educate or learn how to help others take the correct medication and maybe increase somebody’s quality of life intrigues me.

To become a pharmacist requires at least two years of undergraduate study and then a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm. D. ) degree from an accredited Pharmacy program along with state/national board exams. This starts out with getting your basic prerequisites done so, either a 2- or 4-year degree, once that is completed you need to pass the Pharmacy College Admissions Test before being admitted to a 4-year pharmacy program. This will first include the basic prerequisite classes like English, History, Math, but will also include Anatomy, Physiology, organic and regular Chemistry, molecular and cellular Biology, and more in-depth math classes. Depending on the PharmD college you decide to go to you will most likely need to pass a college admissions test that is approximately 200 questions (including multiple choice and writing portions), you will be tested on writing, biological and chemical processes, critical reading and quantitative reasoning. Once you do this you can go enter the PharmD program. This is four years of more in-depth chemistry/microbiology/ and specific math and science classes. There really are too many to list but after you complete the program you will know how the body and chemicals react and work together.

You will also be able to promote and understand preventative health practices and disease prevention. From here you will need to complete the “three parts of a licensing examination series for pharmacists, including the North American Pharmacist Licensing Exam, the Multi-State Pharmacy Jurisprudence Exam, and the Written and Practical exam. ” This will cost you around $500 dollars and depending on your state may only be taken a certain amount of times if you don’t pass it. Some of the most important qualities of being a Pharmacist are accuracy and integrity. It is important to make sure you are giving the correct medications and able to determine if there are mistakes with some prescriptions that may have negative interactions with each other. It’s important to have current skills in math, chemistry, and biology to correctly fill and calculate the correct formulas for medications. Being able to prioritize tasks in a busy environment but also able to analyze and be accurate are essential to the job.

Dealing with customers who are upset or doctors who may be upset due to medications not being covered or interactions and prescriptions needed to be correct will be essential. Handling insurance companies, doctors, customers, and other co-workers with compassion but still being able to be direct, accurate, informative, organized and ethical will make for a great working environment and confident Pharmacist. That’s what I hope to be one day. I believe I need to work on being more flexible and realizing that people respond to situations under stress differently than I do. Not everyone has the same ethics or standards and I need to work on being more understanding and not hold others to the same standards as myself. I am unsure if I’m going to be able to comprehend organic chemistry or the more intense math classes as well as I would like to. I would like to work in a hospital or medical center. The reason for this is I would prefer to give a good quality of care over numbers in a retail environment.

The physical demands of the job would be standing on your feet for most of your shift. Light lifting of boxes and putting away inventory as needed. Multi-taking by being on the computer and the phone, while also dealing with co-workers and patients at the same time. Also, using instruments to measure or count prescriptions accurately while maintaining strict protocols will be a must.

Overall, just being able to deal with multiple tasks, be flexible and be on your feet for 9 hours the physical demands. Pharmacists are increasing in demand every year due to the population taking more medications and living longer. The increase in long term care for diseases has produced more medications and pharmacists needed. It is predicted for 2018 the need for pharmacists should increase by about 6 percent.