What does a float pharmacist do?
The primary role of a Float Pharmacist is to assist customers with their health care needs through filling prescriptions and providing excellent customer service. They supervise the work completed by pharmacy technicians and support staff.
Float pharmacist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real float pharmacist resumes:
- Manage many aspects of daily operations of pharmacy department with emerging focus on oncology.
- Dose and manage all Vancomycin and Aminoglycoside antibiotics throughout the entire hospital including overseeing, evaluating, and ordering antibiotic labs.
- Facilitate the training of staff from Eckerd to CVS
- Provide pharmacist coverage to CVS stores locate around Wisconsin.
- Check each prescription drug order for appropriateness of therapy, drug interactions, and medication allergies prior to dispensing.
- Check prescriptions for appropriate dosage, drug interactions, allergies and contra-indications before dispensing medications.
- Evaluate patient vaccination records and discuss with patients pertinent information regarding current and future vaccination schedules.
- Provide clinical recommendations for specialize patient groups including psychotropic, oncology, pain management and nutritional services.
- Improve routine immunization and vaccination across all age groups by advocating, identifying and educating at-risk population groups.
- Provide immunization services for non-seasonal vaccinations for prevention of conditions such as shingles, tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis, hepatitis, and meningitis.
- Educate patients on non-pharmacological life-style modification.
- Educate patients on non-pharmacological life-style modification.
Float pharmacist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 30% of Float Pharmacists are proficient in Patients, Customer Service, and Patient Care. They’re also known for soft skills such as Computer skills, Managerial skills, and Analytical skills.
We break down the percentage of Float Pharmacists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 30%
Educated patients on non-pharmacological life-style modification.
- Customer Service, 22%
Assist pharmacist in providing care to customers by processing accurately dispensing prescription orders, overall customer service
- Patient Care, 22%
Utilized strong understanding and passion for psychiatric pharmacy and chemical dependency to advance patient care initiatives and manage complex medication interactions.
- Immunization, 8%
Improved routine immunization and vaccination across all age groups by advocating, identifying and educating at-risk population groups.
- Inventory Management, 8%
Involved in all aspects of community pharmacy including prescription allocation, consultation, immunizations, and inventory management.
- Disease State Management, 1%
Implemented and provided disease state management for area assisted living facilities, resulting in increased public exposure and service contracts.
"patients," "customer service," and "patient care" are among the most common skills that float pharmacists use at work. You can find even more float pharmacist responsibilities below, including:
Managerial skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling float pharmacist duties is managerial skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "pharmacists, particularly those who run a retail pharmacy, must have good leadership skills." According to a float pharmacist resume, here's how float pharmacists can utilize managerial skills in their job responsibilities: "learn leadership and managerial skills of executive team leaders -enter rx, fill rx, and counsel patients on prescriptions"
Analytical skills. This is an important skill for float pharmacists to perform their duties. For an example of how float pharmacist responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "pharmacists must evaluate the contents and side effects of prescribed medication to ensure that the patient may safely take it." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a float pharmacist: "1.prepared and dispensed prescriptions 2.provided patient counseling on prescriptions and otc's 3.verified prescription data entry 4.provided drug information to physicians".
Communication skills. For certain float pharmacist responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "communication skills." The day-to-day duties of a float pharmacist rely on this skill, as "pharmacists frequently must explain to patients about how to take medication and what its potential side effects are." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what float pharmacists do: "utilized excellent verbal and written communication skills with patients and health care professionals. "
Detail oriented. A commonly-found skill in float pharmacist job descriptions, "detail oriented" is essential to what float pharmacists do. Float pharmacist responsibilities rely on this skill because "pharmacists are responsible for accurately providing the appropriate medication for each patient." You can also see how float pharmacist duties rely on detail oriented in this resume example: "displayed patient-oriented and comprehensive clinical pharmacy services and pharmaceutical care. "
Interpersonal skills. Another skill commonly found on float pharmacist job descriptions is "interpersonal skills." It can come up quite often in float pharmacist duties, since "pharmacists spend much of their time interacting with patients and as part of a healthcare team coordinating patient care." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day float pharmacist responsibilities: "developed interpersonal skills relating to colleagues and patients and provided a high level of patient care services. "
The three companies that hire the most float pharmacists are:
- CVS Health160 float pharmacists jobs
- Publix57 float pharmacists jobs
- Kroger38 float pharmacists jobs
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Compare different float pharmacists
Float pharmacist vs. Pharmacy internship
When it comes to a pharmacy internship, one of the primary responsibilities is to observe pharmacy operations and develop efficient communication skills as most of the tasks will revolve around customer service, such as providing instructions on when to take medications and what could be the side effects. Moreover, working as a pharmacist requires excellent attention to detail, ensuring that all customers receive the correct type and amount according to their prescriptions. Among the duties can also revolve around administrative tasks such as verifying prescriptions, keeping and maintaining accurate records, and responding to inquiries.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a float pharmacist are more likely to require skills like "immunization," "federal laws," "state laws," and "clinical services." On the other hand, a job as a pharmacy internship requires skills like "math," "diabetes," "pharmacy intern," and "insurance claims." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Pharmacy interns earn the highest salaries when working in the health care industry, with an average yearly salary of $95,157. On the other hand, float pharmacists are paid more in the retail industry with an average salary of $122,906.pharmacy interns tend to reach similar levels of education than float pharmacists. In fact, pharmacy interns are 2.7% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 18.4% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Float pharmacist vs. Accredited pharmacist technician
A pharmacist consultant specializes in providing advice to patients regarding their medication, discussing benefits, and recommending other services as necessary. They usually work at pharmacies, where they are also in charge of tasks, such as conducting research and assessments, maintaining records, utilizing tools and software to develop organized reports and information databases, and generating sales forecasts for different medications. Additionally, they also coordinate and work together with physicians and other medical experts in developing treatment plans in adherence to standards and regulations.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, float pharmacist responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "patients," "customer service," "patient care," and "immunization." Meanwhile, an accredited pharmacist technician has duties that require skills in areas such as "pharmd," "bcps," "clinical rotations," and "internal medicine." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
In general, accredited pharmacist technicians achieve similar levels of education than float pharmacists. They're 5.0% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 18.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Float pharmacist vs. Pharmacist informaticist
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a float pharmacist is likely to be skilled in "patients," "customer service," "patient care," and "immunization," while a typical pharmacist informaticist is skilled in "meditech," "delivery systems," "clinical applications," and "cpoe."
Most pharmacist informaticists achieve a similar degree level compared to float pharmacists. For example, they're 3.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 12.8% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Float pharmacist vs. Pharmacist consultant
Even though a few skill sets overlap between float pharmacists and pharmacist consultants, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a float pharmacist might have more use for skills like "customer service," "immunization," "inventory management," and "cvs." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of pharmacist consultants require skills like "federal regulations," "nursing home," "patient outcomes," and "home health. "
In general, pharmacist consultants hold similar degree levels compared to float pharmacists. Pharmacist consultants are 3.9% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 15.8% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of float pharmacist
Updated January 8, 2025
