Pharmacy Profession - Duties, Workplace

2024 Author: Rachel Wainwright | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 07:39

Pharmacist

A pharmacist is a junior specialist in the preparation, research and marketing of various medicinal products. The main workplace of a pharmacist is pharmacies, pharmacy warehouses, pharmaceutical companies, control and analytical institutions, research institutes, pharmaceutical factories and production.

The pharmacist possesses systemic knowledge in the fields of pharmaceutical technology of drugs, pharmaceutical chemistry, organization and economics of pharmacy, pharmacology and pharmacotherapy.

The profession of a pharmacist is one of the oldest professions known to mankind. For the first time, the profession of a pharmacist in its modern sense is mentioned in documents dating back to the 13th century AD. Nevertheless, primitive man, due to his dependence on external factors of the world, used various substances of plant origin to relieve pain and suffering. The first drugs were known long before the advent of writing. The accumulated experience and knowledge were passed from generation to generation orally. In the Middle Ages, the pharmaceutical business was most influenced by magic, alchemy, astrology.

The main duties of a pharmacist

The main responsibilities of a pharmacist vary according to the workplace of the specialist. Thus, the main duties of a pharmacist working in a pharmacy will include:

• Advising buyers on the pharmacological properties of drugs and dispensing drugs;
• Storage and display of goods;
• Carrying out measures to organize the provision of medicines to the population (generating demand for medicines and medical products, determining the population's need for medicines);
• Quality control of medicines supplied to the pharmacy.

If the pharmacist's workplace is a research institute or laboratory, then the pharmacist's duties will be as follows:

• Development of new drugs and improvement of already known drugs;
• Preparation of medicines;
• Work on the technology for the preparation of medicines.

It should be noted that it is not the responsibility of a pharmacist to select drugs for patients. A pharmacist who works with clients has the right to advise buyers about the properties of drugs, contraindications and possible side effects, based on a doctor's prescription. The pharmacist can also select analogues of the prescribed drugs, which will only be of a recommendation nature.

Pharmacist personal qualities

A pharmacist is a specialist in the periphery of medicine, pharmaceuticals and commerce.

The main qualities and abilities that a specialist must possess are determined by the specifics of the pharmacist's workplace. The profession of a pharmacist requires not only a high level of special knowledge and skills, but also high moral qualities of a person.

The profession of a pharmacist assumes that a person has the following personal qualities and abilities:

• Mindfulness, composure, accuracy;
• Tolerance, responsiveness;
• Concentration, high degree of responsibility, self-control;
• Long-term and imaginative memory;
• Tactile and motor memory;
• Analytic skills;
• Fine sense of smell and taste;

The following qualities are considered unacceptable for the profession of a pharmacist:

• Negligence, carelessness;
• Rudeness, irritability;
• Indifference to people.

Pharmacist and Pharmacist - What's the Difference?

Many people mistakenly believe that a pharmacist and a pharmacist are two similar concepts. The difference between the two professions lies in the qualifications of specialists. Thus, a pharmacist is a highly qualified specialist, which gives him the right to conduct independent pharmaceutical activities, as well as to manage a pharmacy. A pharmacist must have a higher pharmaceutical education, while a pharmacist must have a secondary specialized education.

Getting the profession of a pharmacist and qualification of specialists

The training of junior specialists in the specialty of a pharmacist is carried out in medical schools and pharmaceutical colleges.

Qualification categories are assigned to pharmacists based on the acquired theoretical and practical knowledge and experience in the following sequence:

• The second category is assigned to pharmacists with secondary specialized education and work experience of at least five years.
• The first category is assigned to pharmacists with secondary specialized education and work experience of at least seven years.
• The highest category is assigned to pharmacists with at least 10 years of experience in this area.

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