A clinical pharmacist ensures that medication prescribed by physicians and other medical professionals are rationally and effectively used and appropriated. Their duties include reviewing medical histories and records of patients in order to ensure assigned therapy will be effective and will not clash with other medication, develop clinical pharmaceutical programs according to clinical standards and policies, assess the results of the prescribed therapy in its later stages, and keep accurate medical and patient records.
How To Become a Clinical Pharmacist
Summary. We reviewed real candidate profiles to learn the best path to become a clinical pharmacist. We'll guide you through the education, experiences, and skills hiring managers look for in a clinical pharmacist.
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Most companies require a clinical pharmacist to have a doctoral degree degree in a related field, such as pharmacy or biology.
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It's important to have relevant work experience, with typical job requirements ranging from 1-2 years in related fields.
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Common job titles before becoming a clinical pharmacist include pharmacist, staff pharmacist, and pharmacy internship.
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Hiring managers expect a clinical pharmacist to have soft skills such as analytical skills, communication skills, and computer skills.
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Once you have all the required skills and experience, it takes an average of less than 1 month of job training to become a clinical pharmacist.
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Getting a certification as a Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT) will help you to earn more as a clinical pharmacist.
Before becoming a clinical pharmacist, 43.0% earned their bachelor's degree. When it comes down to graduating with a master's degree, 6.2% clinical pharmacists went for the extra education. If you're wanting to pursue this career, it may be impossible to be successful with a high school degree. In fact, most clinical pharmacists have a college degree. But about one out of every nine clinical pharmacists didn't attend college at all.
The clinical pharmacists who went onto college to earn a more in-depth education generally studied pharmacy and biology, while a small population of clinical pharmacists studied business and chemistry.
How to become a Clinical Pharmacist in 5 steps:
- Step 1: Explore clinical pharmacist education
- Step 2: Develop clinical pharmacist skills
- Step 3: Complete relevent training/internship
- Step 4: Research clinical pharmacist duties
- Step 5: Prepare your resume
Key Steps To Become a Clinical Pharmacist
Explore Clinical Pharmacist Education
If you're interested in becoming a clinical pharmacist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 43.0% of clinical pharmacists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 6.2% of clinical pharmacists have master's degrees. Even though most clinical pharmacists have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a clinical pharmacist. When we researched the most common majors for a clinical pharmacist, we found that they most commonly have pharmacy, biology and business.
Clinical Pharmacist Major Percentages Pharmacy 79.90% Biology 5.40% Business 2.80% Chemistry 2.20% Other Degrees 9.80% Develop Clinical Pharmacist Skills
It'll be a good idea to develop clinical pharmacist skills before applying for a job. Here are some skills commonly requested in clinical pharmacist job descriptions:
Skills Percentages Patients 20.17% Patient Care 10.76% PharmD 6.93% Medication Orders 4.80% Pharmaceutical Care 4.24% Complete Relevent Training/Internship
Clinical pharmacists spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. During this time, new clinical pharmacists learn the skills and techniques required for their specific job and employer. The chart below shows how much time it takes to gain competency as a clinical pharmacist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real clinical pharmacist resumes.
Average Amount Of Time At Training
Research Clinical Pharmacist Duties
When you decide to become a clinical pharmacist, It's important to know what duties and responsibilities are required for this position. Some common responsibilities are a part of most clinical pharmacist jobs. Here is a list of the main duties that define the role:
- Train, manage and instruct pharmacy technicians, interns, and PharmD candidates on clinical rotations.
- Dose and manage all Vancomycin and Aminoglycoside antibiotics throughout the entire hospital including overseeing, evaluating, and ordering antibiotic labs.
- Receive and verify drug orders from physicians using computerize physician order entry system, including cancer chemotherapy orders.
- Implement updated pediatric chemotherapy-induce nausea and vomiting (CINV) guidelines and policy for use in all pediatric patients receiving chemotherapy.
- Provide clinical assistance to the RPh staff in addition to case processing.
- Maintain sterile product manufacturing processes to comply with federal, state and local regulations and JCAHO standards.
Prepare Your Resume
Finally, when you already have checked the skills and responsibilities for this role, you can start creating your resume. Everything that goes into creating a perfect resume can take hours, days, or even weeks. No worries, we created a resume builder to make this process as easy as possible with tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and a summary.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Clinical Pharmacist Resume templates
Build a professional Clinical Pharmacist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Clinical Pharmacist resume.Apply For a Clinical Pharmacist Job
Clinical Pharmacist Jobs
