Community Pharmacists
Pharmacists practicing in community-based settings are health care providers who offer
either generalist or specialist ambulatory care services to patients in the communities
they serve
Hospital Pharmacists
Hospital pharmacy is the health care service that comprises the art, practice, and
profession of choosing, preparing, storing, compounding and dispensing medicines and
medical devices, advising patients, doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals
on their safe, effective and efficient use.
Clinical Specialists
- Ambulatory Care - Ambulatory care clinical specialists are pharmacists who directly manage patients
in an outpatient setting. They manage common disease states such as hypertension,
diabetes and patients on blood thinners.
- Adult Medicine - Focused on the care of adults with medical problems. These specialists usually
manage the complex regimens of adult hospitalized patients.
- Critical-Care - Critical Care Pharmacy specializes in the delivery of patient care services by pharmacists,
as integral members of interprofessional teams, working to ensure the safe and effective
use of medications in critically ill patients.
- Drug Information - A drug information pharmacist may work in research, teaching, precepting, formulary
management, adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting, and participation in the pharmacy
and therapeutics committee. They can also work for large drug information repository
companies.
- Pediatrics - Pediatric Pharmacy ensures safe and effective drug use and optimal medication therapy
outcomes in children from birth up to 18 years of age. Practice settings might be
either inpatient or outpatient.
- Geriatrics - Geriatric pharmacy specialists are those pharmacists that have special knowledge
in the care of older adults. Practice settings can be inpatient, outpatient or long-term
care.
- Nutrition Support - Nutrition Support Pharmacy addresses the care of patients receiving specialized
nutrition support, including total parenteral nutrition or feeding tube nutrition.
- Oncology - Oncology Pharmacy provides evidence-based, patient-centered medication therapy management
and direct patient care for individuals with cancer, including treatment assessment
and monitoring for potential adverse drug reactions and interactions.
- Pharmacotherapy - Pharmacotherapy is the treatment of a disorder or disease with medication. Pharmacotherapy
clinical specialists practice in a wide array of settings including inpatient and
outpatient arenas.
- Psychopharmacology - Psychopharmacology is the study of the use of medications in treating mental disorders.
The complexity of this field requires continuous study in order to keep current with
new advances. Psychopharmacologists need to understand all the clinically relevant
principles of pharmacokinetics (what the body does to medication) and pharmacodynamics
(what the medications do to the body).
- Transplant - Transplant pharmacists provide evidence-based, patient-centered medication therapy
management and care for patients throughout all phases of solid organ transplantation.
Nuclear Pharmacist
Nuclear pharmacy is a specialty area of pharmacy practice involved with the preparation
of radioactive materials to improve and promote health through the safe and effective
use of radioactive drugs to diagnose and treat specific disease states.
Pharmaceutical Sales & Marketing
This career is focused on advertising and promoting the company’s pharmaceutical products
in line with all relevant rules and regulations
Pharmacy Academics
Academic pharmacists educate, train, assess and develop pharmacy students, pre-registration
trainees, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals. They can deliver didactic,
laboratory, and clinical instruction and do research and scholarship.
Professional Associations
Pharmacists who work for professional associations plan and prepare meetings for the
association, conduct board meetings, and can also work for local, state and federal
advocacy groups for the organization.
Compounding Pharmacist
The traditional role of a compounding pharmacist is to make drugs prescribed by doctors
for specific patients with needs that can't be met by commercially available drugs.
This includes both sterile and non-sterile products.
Drug Regulatory Affairs
Regulatory affairs pharmacists are concerned with the regulations and guidelines for
clinical trials and other aspects of medical research. A career in regulatory affairs
is in either the public sector (government body or public policy) or in a pharmaceutical
company.
Medication Safety
The medication safety leader’s role includes responsibility for leadership, medication
safety expertise, influencing practice change, research, and education. Pharmacists
in this role usually work for large health care systems as patient safety officers.
Publications
Pharmacists can work for professional journals as an editor or associate editor reviewing
manuscripts submitted for publication.
Research & Development
A career in R&D could land you in a lab working in many phases of drug development.
You could work on clinical trials, regulatory affairs or in pharmacovigilance - monitoring
and reporting the effectiveness of any side effects of pharmaceutical products.
Medical Communications
Effectively communicate details of medical information both orally and in writing
to health care professionals, consumers, and industry personnel. Pharmacists in this
role can work with pharmaceutical companies or other educational companies.