The general notion is dispensing medicines in a corner pharmacy or working as a scientist in a research laboratory by graduating with a pharmacy degree. In reality, there are so many more opportunities providing pharmacy graduates with exciting and rewarding careers.
Let us discuss what career options you have with a pharmacy degree.
Working for Hospitals
Working for hospitals will make you medicine experts. It provides you an opportunity to work in a supportive team, actively involved in patient care. You will have multiple roles – work closely with medical and nursing staff to ensure best treatment for the patients. Apart from advising physicians/nurses on the selection and dose, you will also be responsible for dispensing prescriptions.
Working for Primary Care
This profession is comparatively new. They do not dispense medicines normally, but work within a general medical practice to deliver direct support to doctors and their patients. Mostly, they give more time and attention to individual patients unlike a community pharmacist, providing quality care and specialised services. This career option is better for those who want to work closely with doctors, thus providing more in-depth care to their patients.
For Clinical Trials
This area of practicing is mainly to support the delivery of clinical trials of new medicines. Coordinating research from a medicinal perspective, you have to ensure that drugs used in the clinical trials are stored, dispensed and used as per strict protocols. It involves a steady liaison with hospital staff, counselling participants and carriers, simultaneously educating medical and nursing staff.
For Governments/NGOs
A pharmacist has knowledge, skills and experience that can perfectly fit into advisory roles, both for governments and non-government institutions. Working for government can focus on access to medicines, e-Health, public health and many more.
For Mental Health
This is a highly specialised career requiring strong teamwork skills and up-to-date drug knowledge in psychotropic drug therapy. Pharmacists of this stream are specialized in clinical pharmacy services to the adult mental health in-patient wards along with psychiatric assessment. The focus needs constantly managing the supply of antipsychotic medications to mental health patients.
As Pain Educator/Consultant
Chronic and acute pain are unique areas to work in. Pain management is a constantly evolving field encompassing variety of treatments and not just pharmacy and pain medications. As pharmacist in this career, you need to work with pain sufferers to manage their medications and coordinate other forms of treatment.
As Drug Safety Officer
This is another interesting career prospect. As a drug safety officer, you will be responsible for vigilance on pharmaceutical products including receiving and processing reports of adverse drug effects and conducting regular interactions with health authorities.
Getting a Pharma degree gives you the luxury of choice if you study in India. There are so many great professions to choose from. To get the best possible advice on the exciting Pharma courses, come to AdmissionLelo, the best admission consultants in India. The choice is entirely yours.