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Pharmacists

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Dispense drugs prescribed by physicians and other health practitioners and provide information to patients about medications and their use. May advise physicians and other health practitioners on the selection, dosage, interactions, and side effects of medications.

Related: Clinical Nurse Specialists Emergency Medicine Physicians Family Medicine Physicians Nurse Practitioners Physician Assistants

Industries: Retail Health & Counseling

Summary
Details

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.
Compound and dispense medications as prescribed by doctors and dentists, by calculating, weighing, measuring, and mixing ingredients, or oversee these activities.
Update or troubleshoot pharmacy information databases.
Plan, implement, or maintain procedures for mixing, packaging, or labeling pharmaceuticals, according to policy and legal requirements, to ensure quality, security, and proper disposal.
Manage pharmacy operations, hiring or supervising staff, performing administrative duties, or buying or selling non-pharmaceutical merchandise.
Order and purchase pharmaceutical supplies, medical supplies, or drugs, maintaining stock and storing and handling it properly.
Manage pharmacy operations, hiring or supervising staff, performing administrative duties, or buying or selling non-pharmaceutical merchandise.
Contact insurance companies to resolve billing issues.
Refer patients to other health professionals or agencies when appropriate.
Publish educational information for other pharmacists, doctors, or patients.
Analyze prescribing trends to monitor patient compliance and to prevent excessive usage or harmful interactions.
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.
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.
Assess the identity, strength, or purity of medications.
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.
Teach pharmacy students serving as interns in preparation for their graduation or licensure.
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.
Order and purchase pharmaceutical supplies, medical supplies, or drugs, maintaining stock and storing and handling it properly.
Prepare sterile solutions or infusions for use in surgical procedures, emergency rooms, or patients' homes.
Advise customers on the selection of medication brands, medical equipment, or healthcare supplies.
Provide specialized services to help patients manage conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, smoking cessation, or high blood pressure.
Offer health promotion or prevention activities, such as training people to use blood pressure devices or diabetes monitors.
Contact insurance companies to resolve billing issues.
Assess the identity, strength, or purity of medications.
Analyze prescribing trends to monitor patient compliance and to prevent excessive usage or harmful interactions.
Provide information and advice regarding drug interactions, side effects, dosage, and proper medication storage.
Provide information and advice regarding drug interactions, side effects, dosage, and proper medication storage.
Review prescriptions to assure accuracy, to ascertain the needed ingredients, and to evaluate their suitability.

Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.

Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.

History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.

Education

Doctoral or professional degree

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

No on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

157020/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

75.49/hr

Currently Employed

8,120

Yearly Projected Openings

430

Investigative: People interested in this work like activities that include ideas, thinking, and figuring things out. They do well at jobs that need:

Attention to Detail
Concern for Others
Dependability
Stress Tolerance
Cooperation
Integrity

Ampoule filling equipment
Bar code reader equipment
Binocular light compound microscopes
Calibration weights or weight sets
Electronic blood pressure units
Electronic toploading balances
Filling or sealing auger dose machines
Fume hoods or cupboards
Geiger counters
Glucose monitors or meters
Hemacytometer sets
Hypodermic needle
Intravenous tubing with catheter administration kits
Label making machines
Laboratory balances
Laboratory graduated cylinders
Laminar flow cabinets or stations
Liquid scintillation counters
Medical radiation dosimeters
Medical radiological shielding freestanding or portable screens or curtains
Medical radiological shielding wall or ceiling or floor installed panels
Medical syringes without needle
Medication or pill dispensers
Mercury blood pressure units
Ostomy starter kits
Oxygen therapy delivery system products
Patient care beds for general use
Personal computers
Pestle or mortars
Pharmaceutical filters or ultra filters
Radiation detectors
Sterile or aseptic processing or filling machines
Tablet computers
Tablet counters
Wheelchairs

Accounting software
Analytical or scientific software
Calendar and scheduling software
Computer based training software
Data base user interface and query software
Document management software
Electronic mail software
Internet browser software
Inventory management software
Label making software
Medical software
Office suite software
Presentation software
Spreadsheet software
Word processing software

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