You might have heard or read online from many advisers or counselors that you need to have pharmaceutical skills to get job or to get promotion. But have you ever wondered, what are those key skills required to become a successful pharmacist.
Skills are the expertise or talent needed in order to do a job or task. Job skills allow you to do a particular job. There are many different types of skills that can help you succeed at all aspects of your life whether it's school, work, or even a sport or hobby. Skills can be natural or acquired. And generally job skills are acquired by individuals by practice or intensive training.
Here, you will find out such top 10 Pharmacists skills which will be useful for your successful career.
1. Accuracy
Pharmacists are dealing with medicines in every aspect from production to marketing of it and even involved in dispensing of medicines. As a pharmacist, we aware that medicines could be dangerous if wrongly dispatched or mishandled. Pharmacists are expected to dispense medicines in error-free manner and that quick, too. They have to understand the handwriting of doctors and also required to fill prescriptions in developed countries like USA, Canada etc. Humans are naturally known to make mistakes, but Pharmacist should be accurate in his work, because it’s matter of life or death.
2. Communication Skills
Communication skills are important for most of the professionals and it is important to have command on English as well as local languages. It is important while you communicate with patients. It is duty of pharmacists to communicate with patients regarding dose of administration, when to take and how to take medicines. Sometime in few chronic illnesses, it is necessary that patient should not miss a single dose. Then, it can become challenge for pharmacist to communicate same with patients in a way that they can understand.
3. Proof Reading
Sometimes doctors miss drug-drug interaction and prescribe such medications. Then pharmacists can become proof-readers and inform back doctors about it and suggest changes in prescription. But, before that pharmacist have to study intensively on same
4. Interpersonal Skills
Pharmacists often have to struggle between doctors who don’t like to be questioned and frustrated patients who may get upset due to waiting for their prescriptions. Pharmacists need interpersonal skills like patience, diplomacy and a great sense of humour.
5. Management Skills
When chain pharmacies are part of the country and big hospitals require senior pharmacists who can manage budgets, monitor inventories and keep accountable records. Pharmacists are also responsible for supervising and manage junior staff.
6. Multitasking
Pharmacists are involved in multiple tasks along with dispensing of medicines. Pharmacists are responsible for checking expiry dates of medicines, stocking of required medicines, recording and many other small to big tasks are assigned to them.
7. Patient Counseling
It is most important among all the skills. Patient counseling refers to the process of providing vital information, advice and assistance to help patients with their medications and to ensure patients to take medicines properly. Yes, it require communication skill for same but along with that pharmacist require deep knowledge about medicines which they acquire during their education.
8. Computer Skills
When the world is moving towards online pharmacies (e-Pharmacy), it is obviously that pharmacists should have knowledge of same. Most pharmacies today are connected to the internet. Also, computers are helpful for easier storage of customer data, inventory counts, billings etc.
9. Gaining knowledge
Pharmaceutical field is a field of innovation and many new medicines as well as products hit the market. It is necessary for pharmacists to keep themselves up to date in knowledge and keep learning professional things.
10. Professional Ethics
Pharmacists are expected to follow ethical practise. They have to keep secret about patient information. If there are some patients who are purchasing anti-hiv medicines from a pharmacist and they are from neighborhood or distant still their details are not disclosed in community in any circumstances.
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