This post provides detailed information on the pharmacy intern career, including how to become one, the various career opportunities you can explore, and the benefits of being a pharmacy intern.
How to Become a Pharmacy Intern
To become a pharmacy intern, here are the steps to take:
- Acquire the prerequisites for the pharmacy program.
Before enrolling in pharmacy school, you must complete the prerequisite courses for admission to the Bachelor’s program.
Earning college credits for basic subjects such as biology, mathematics, and physics is part of this.
2. Make an application to pharmacy school.
After you’ve completed the prerequisite courses, you can apply to pharmacy school.
Your Pharmacy College Admission exam results, GPA, letters of recommendation, relevant work experience, and college class rank are all required application materials.
3. Go to pharmacy school.
Once admitted into pharmacy school, you’ll learn the fundamentals of becoming a pharmacist. Medical ethics, pharmacology, and physiology are among the courses available.
4. Register with the pharmacy board.
To become a pharmacy intern, you must usually register with the Board of Pharmacy.
This formally announces your internship and allows you to properly cite and process your hours.
Pharmacy Intern Career Opportunities
Here are various career opportunities a pharmacy intern can explore:
- Staff Pharmacist
A Staff Pharmacist is one that is licensed to practice professional, independent pharmacy judgment under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist.
They help the pharmacists with various administrative tasks such as ordering prescription medications, maintaining supplies, and interfacing with the physicians.
2. Pharmacist Manager
A Pharmacist Manager is an experienced and educated physician who directs a pharmacy department of an acute care or non-acute care facility.
The pharmacist managers may be in charge of compliance rules, patient care policies, safe pharmacy practices, quality control, inventory management, and clinical pharmacology.
Pharmacists are specialized for this role.
3. Registered Nurse
A Registered Nurse is an educated person that is specially trained and licensed to perform nursing duties independently.
They may work in a variety of healthcare settings, including hospitals, clinics, schools, home health agencies, private homes, public health agencies or any other workplace environment.
4. Registered Nurse Supervisor
A Registered Nurse Supervisor is an educated person that is specially trained and licensed to perform nursing duties independently.
They may work in a variety of healthcare settings including hospitals, clinics, schools, home health agencies, private homes, public health agencies or any other workplace environment.
5. Nurse Supervisor
A Nurse Supervisor is a registered nurse who works as a head of a team of nurses. Their roles involve delegating and supervising tasks to other nurses such as preparing medications according to physician orders.
More Pharmacy Intern Career Opportunities
6. Health Educator
A Health Educator is a person who informs the public about health matters and disease prevention.
They may work in non-acute care settings, especially in primary care facilities such as private physician offices and school health centers.
Health educators perform a wide array of activities such as counseling people on how to prevent diseases, teaching people how to take medications correctly, and performing lab tests.
7. Quality Improvement Coordinator
A Quality Improvement Coordinator is a registered or licensed health professional whose duties are dedicated to improving quality of healthcare.
They may work in many different healthcare settings including acute care hospitals, long-term care facilities, home health agencies and outpatient surgery centers.
This person participates in a team or work group that works on ways to improve such activities as patient safety, medication management, staff development, efficient workflow processes and laboratory procedures.
8. Health Information Manager
A Health Information Manager is responsible for managing a department of the healthcare facilities that focus on ensuring the security of medical records and other confidential health information.
They perform some or all of the following duties: producing and storing medical records, gathering and analyzing patient data for the purpose of making effective decisions about patient care and establishing and controlling access to records.
Additional Pharmacy Intern Career Opportunities
9. Health System Administrator
A Health System Administrator is a professional in the healthcare field who manages an organization’s health care delivery system.
They may work as a manager in hospitals, clinics, home health agencies, government agencies or pharmaceutical companies.
The duties may include financial concerns and personnel issues such as hiring, management, supervision and discipline.
10. Pharmaceutical Sales Representative
A Pharmaceutical Sales Representative is a licensed person that promotes the sale of non-generic drugs to hospitals, physicians and pharmacies.
They sell prescription medications to physicians and health care professionals such as dentists by visiting the practitioner’s office to provide information about the drug, offering a sample medication for them to use with their patients, and answering any questions about its use or side effects.
Challenges faced by Pharmacy Interns on the Job
Pharmacy interns may face certain challenges in carrying out their job functions, including:
- Difficult Working Conditions
Pharmacy intern’s working conditions are sometimes very challenging.
Their responsibilities include maintaining accurate records, critical thinking and problem solving, record keeping and meeting deadlines.
They also must be trained on proper techniques and procedures in handling drugs, inventorying supplies, and making sure the drugs are safe to use.
2. Reliance on Others
Pharmacy interns primarily rely on their supervisors and team members. They need to be able to communicate effectively with them to formulate a plan of action on how tasks should be completed.
3. Repetitive Tasks
Pharmacy interns must do the same routine tasks over and over again. This can be very boring and time consuming.
Some repetitive tasks include ordering prescriptions from computers, verifying prescriptions through computer programs and then physically delivering the drugs to patients.
Major Benefits of a Pharmacy Intern Career
There are several benefits to the pharmacy intern career. Some of them include:
- Earn a respectable salary
The average annual salary for a pharmacy intern ranges between $60,000-90,000. The salary is higher in large cities like New York City and San Francisco.
2. Wide-ranging job market
Pharmacy is a wide-ranging job market. Opportunities are available in retail pharmacies, hospital pharmacies, long term care facilities, and the pharmaceutical industry itself.
3. Job security
Pharmacy interns are employed by their employers and are typically protected by union contracts.
Pharmacy intern salaries increase over the time of their employment, providing a stable source of income.
4. Professional respect & title recognition
Hospitals and pharmaceutical companies tend to offer great opportunities for job advancement.
As you advance in your career, you will be employed at higher levels, making more money and being more influential in the organization.
This allows you to gain a proper sense of responsibility as well as increased prestige.
More Benefits of a Pharmacy Intern Career
5. Job advancement
You have the opportunity to advance your career as a pharmacy intern. There are several opportunities to advance.
For example, you can become a pharmacy supervisor and manage other pharmacy interns, or you can even become a pharmacy director and manage a group of pharmacy interns.
6. Contribution to Society
You’ll be helping your community as well as advancing your own personal education.
Most pharmacy internships give you the opportunity to work with patients while they receive their medications.
This is a great way to help people and advance your skills.
7. Long term career potential
A pharmacy intern can have a long term career in their profession. Most pharmacy interns can easily gain employment after their internship has ended.
They also will have increased knowledge about the field, allowing them to advance further in their career.
Conclusion
The pharmacy intern program is a versatile choice for students who want to become a pharmacy professional.
This program gives them hands-on experience in the field of pharmacy, which is a major staple in the pharmaceutical industry.