What does a staff pharmacist do?
The job of staff pharmacists entails dispensing prescription drugs to patients and offering their expertise on how to safely use prescribed medicines. Their job responsibilities include overseeing the medications prescribed to patients, providing healthy lifestyle advice such as diet, stress management and exercise, providing immunizations, and conducting health and wellness screenings. They also supervise the work of pharmacists in training and pharmacy technicians, teach other health practitioners on the appropriate medication therapies for individual patients, and do certain administrative tasks.
Staff pharmacist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real staff pharmacist resumes:
- Dose and manage all Vancomycin and Aminoglycoside antibiotics throughout the entire hospital including overseeing, evaluating, and ordering antibiotic labs.
- Maintain excellent relationship with patients base on consultations, efficacy, and compassion.
- Implement value-added customer service programs including individualize counseling, smoking cessation classes, and flu and pneumonia immunization clinics.
- Coordinate prescription fulfillment and verification, including reviewing patient profiles for interactions, allergies, and compatibility prior to dispensation.
- Train and coach new hires, interns and in turn ensure patient compassion.
- Used PYXIS machine to fill control prescription and to retrieve information on particular orders.
- Train on multiple automate pharmacy dispensing system to include: PARATA, PYXIS and YUYAMA.
- Review and compound neonatal TPN formulations using various allegation formulas.
- Participate in community health fairs, including diabetes clinics at assist living facilities.
- Monitor electrolyte and nutritional requirements for neonates and suggest alterations when need for TPN preparation.
- Provide pharmacological information by answering questions and requests of health care professionals; counseling patients on drug therapies.
- Process adult chemotherapy orders for inpatient services and outpatient infusion clinic as a member of the oncology pharmacist team.
- Interpret and dispense prescribed medications, averaging 200 a day, administer immunizations, conduct off site flu immunization clinics.
- Perform hospital/infusion pharmacist duties with emphasis in chemotherapy, biological response modifier therapies, order processing and side effects management.
- Provide verbal counseling to patients and identify any drug-herbal interactions; and assist patients with other questions concerning over-the-counter medication use.
Staff pharmacist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 21% of Staff Pharmacists are proficient in Patients, Patient Care, and Customer Service. They’re also known for soft skills such as Computer skills, Managerial skills, and Analytical skills.
We break down the percentage of Staff Pharmacists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 21%
Provided pharmacological information by answering questions and requests of health care professionals; counseling patients on drug therapies.
- Patient Care, 18%
Complied with all accreditation, legal, regulatory, and safety requirements ensuring quality patient care and inside pharmacy consultant.
- Customer Service, 17%
Managed Pharmaceutical Staff Medical Consultant Ordered Medications/Filled Prescriptions Customer Service Representative
- Patient Safety, 11%
Consult with 10 or more physicians per shift regarding patient medication reconciliation and recommendations that have resulted in increased patient safety.
- Compassion, 9%
Counseled patients on proper use of their medications showing empathy and compassion to establish a positive patient-provider relationship.
- Immunization, 6%
Interpreted and dispensed prescribed medications, averaging 200 a day, administered immunizations, conducted off site flu immunization clinics.
"patients," "patient care," and "customer service" are among the most common skills that staff pharmacists use at work. You can find even more staff pharmacist responsibilities below, including:
Managerial skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling staff 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 staff pharmacist resume, here's how staff pharmacists can utilize managerial skills in their job responsibilities: "general pharmacist duties, immunizations, managerial duties, tech supervision, inventory control, technician scheduling. "
Analytical skills. This is an important skill for staff pharmacists to perform their duties. For an example of how staff 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 staff pharmacist: "time bridged) checked data entry prescriptions and filled orders, counseled customers on new and otc medications, gave immunizations".
Communication skills. staff pharmacist responsibilities often require "communication skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "pharmacists frequently must explain to patients about how to take medication and what its potential side effects are." This resume example shows what staff pharmacists do with communication skills on a typical day: "dispensed medications to patients, monitored for drug interactions and patient allergies, excellent communication and counseling skills. "
Detail oriented. A commonly-found skill in staff pharmacist job descriptions, "detail oriented" is essential to what staff pharmacists do. Staff pharmacist responsibilities rely on this skill because "pharmacists are responsible for accurately providing the appropriate medication for each patient." You can also see how staff pharmacist duties rely on detail oriented in this resume example: "detailed documentation of issues and resolutions in numerous data basis with ability to navigate through multiple computer systems simultaneously. "
Interpersonal skills. While "interpersonal skills" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to staff pharmacist responsibilities. Much of what a staff pharmacist does relies on this skill, seeing as "pharmacists spend much of their time interacting with patients and as part of a healthcare team coordinating patient care." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of staff pharmacists: "used excellent interpersonal, reasoning and decision-making skills. "
The three companies that hire the most staff pharmacists are:
- CVS Health2,892 staff pharmacists jobs
- Walmart555 staff pharmacists jobs
- Rite Aid95 staff pharmacists jobs
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Compare different staff pharmacists
Staff 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.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between staff pharmacists and pharmacy internship. For instance, staff pharmacist responsibilities require skills such as "patient safety," "compassion," "immunization," and "federal laws." Whereas a pharmacy internship is skilled in "math," "diabetes," "insurance claims," and "direct supervision." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Pharmacy interns tend to make the most money working in the health care industry, where they earn an average salary of $95,157. In contrast, staff pharmacists make the biggest average salary, $122,319, in the retail industry.On average, pharmacy interns reach similar levels of education than staff pharmacists. Pharmacy interns are 1.3% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 8.8% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Staff 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.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real staff pharmacist resumes. While staff pharmacist responsibilities can utilize skills like "patients," "patient care," "customer service," and "patient safety," accredited pharmacist technicians use skills like "pharmd," "bcps," "clinical rotations," and "internal medicine."
Accredited pharmacist technicians earn similar levels of education than staff pharmacists in general. They're 3.6% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 8.8% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for staff pharmacists in the next 3-5 years?
Antoine Al-Achi Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmaceutics and Biomedical Sciences Track-Head/Industrial Pharmacy (Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences), Campbell University
Staff pharmacist vs. Pharmacist informaticist
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from staff pharmacist resumes include skills like "patients," "patient care," "customer service," and "patient safety," whereas a pharmacist informaticist is more likely to list skills in "meditech," "delivery systems," "clinical applications," and "cpoe. "
Most pharmacist informaticists achieve a similar degree level compared to staff pharmacists. For example, they're 4.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 22.5% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Staff pharmacist vs. Pharmacist consultant
Even though a few skill sets overlap between staff pharmacists and pharmacist consultants, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a staff pharmacist might have more use for skills like "customer service," "compassion," "immunization," and "inventory management." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of pharmacist consultants require skills like "nursing home," "patient outcomes," "home health," and "medication administration. "
In general, pharmacist consultants hold similar degree levels compared to staff pharmacists. Pharmacist consultants are 2.5% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 6.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of staff pharmacist
Updated January 8, 2025
