“Be nice to pharmacists because we can kill you with one mistake” but “the good news is that the medicine you take while in a hospital has been brought to you by the medication expert – a pharmacist.” ~Unknown.  Pharmacist are people who posses the knowledge to inform customers and/or doctors or physicians about the purpose of any drug or medicine.  A wise man by the name of Walter Matthau once said, ” I wanted to be a pharmacist. I liked the way our local pharmacist was always dressed in a nice white coat; He looked very calm, you’d give him money, and he’d give you something you’d want to buy.” Indeed, they do more than wear white lab jackets and put medicine into bottles.  In order to be well equipped and trained to have this knowledge as a pharmacist, many classes dealing with and around chemistry must be taken. Classes include: Anatomy and Physiology, Biochemistry for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fundamentals of Biology, General Physics, Immunology, Organic Chemistry, and Pharmacy Orientation.  Because of this, pharmacist have one of the most important and appreciated jobs in the healthcare field.  Even though it is very complicated to become a pharmacist, they are important to this world by what they do, how they do it, and why they do it.  This world definitely couldn’t go without them.

Pharmacist are people who have the knowledge and skill to perform out-of this-world-crazy task such as filling prescription and assisting customers about medicine. Pharmacist have one of the most stressful, long, and tiring jobs that requires twelve hours of focus and concentration per day. The Princeton Review explains, “Most pharmacists spend an average of 44 hours per week at their jobs, but individuals who are self-employed tend to work longer. In any case, the work is not sedentary, and pharmacists report spending a lot of their time on their feet” (The Princeton Review).   “Pre-pharmacy students must complete at least two years of college to be eligible for pharmacy school, though most complete 3-4 years of a bachelor’s degree program” (Pharmacist: Educational Requirements and Career Summary).  A pharmacist may start with their pre-requisite, then acquire their bachelor’s, get their Doctor of Pharmacy, or Pharm. D., and then it gets harder.  The final step in becoming a pharmacist is the actual real-world-real-life-experience in an actual work day of a pharmacist.  “Year four is almost all about practical experience. Students perform clinical rotations to put their acquired knowledge and experience to use. This includes interacting with patients, recommending medication variations and guiding administrative staff to better support customers and the community. Students typically perform seven to ten rotations, each lasting four to six weeks” (How to Become a Pharmacist: Careers as a Pharmacist).  Clinical experience is a major segment of a Pharm.D. program. In the first two years, students take Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences, in which students develop essential skills, such as consulting patients, delivering immunizations and performing screenings. During the final two years, students take Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs) that place them in patient care settings under the supervision of licensed pharmacists. APPEs have rotations that allow students to experience different areas of pharmacy, including inpatient. ambulatory operations and electives” (Pharmacist Education and Career Training). All in all, pharmacist have a long, drawn-out journey to achieving their goal of becoming their life-calling.  There are many steps they take, many classes they go through, and many hours completed behind the table and doors of a pharmacist working alongside the professionals, hoping to one day be the one that is training the college students to be as good as them and let the cycle continue.

Pharmacist importance to this world is explained no other than the fact that they cure the unhealthy people in this world, or do everything in their God-given power they can to do so.  According to Role of a Pharmacist, “Pharmacists educate and advise physicians, nurses, and other health professionals on medication therapy decisions. Pharmacists also provide expertise about the composition of drugs, including their chemical, biological, and physical properties and their manufacture and use. They ensure drug purity and strength and make sure that drugs do not interact in a harmful way. Pharmacists are medication experts ultimately concerned about their patients’ health and wellness.” Without pharmacist, physicians, nurses, and all the many different kind of health care workers in the world would have a second job to do, harder and more demanding labor, and of course, more of the I-want-my-medicine-and-I-want-it-right-this-instant patient’s knocking down their door to get their prescriptions. Even though pharmacist have these patients all up in their business, “Making a mistake while working as a pharmacist could make a patient very ill or even result in a death. Dispensing medicines is one of the relatively few careers in which you could actually kill somebody just by misreading simple instructions or failing to spot a rudimentary mistake. Pharmacists need to be knowledgeable about the drugs they dispense and pay great attention to detail to fulfill the important role they play in protecting and improving the public’s health” (Roennevig).  Not only to pharmacist have to fill medicine bottles for other health care workers, they also have to worry about the fact that one mistake could lead to the death of a patient. This job basically went from hard and stressful, to next to impossible and much more stressful.  The lives of hundreds of millions are in the hands of human beings, people who do make mistakes.  So,  all in all, pharmacist may be considered as the most important job in the healthcare field.  They do everything, so what could we do without them?

Through my research, I’ve learned that pharmacist to more than just put pills in a bottoms. I’ve learned that they have to count the medicines, do the math to know how many milligrams need to be taken for each individual patient, and of course, deal with those no-good-very-bad-annoying-patients.  `Throughout it all, I’ve concluded that the pharmacy field is more than just a job.  It is a life behind the counter curing people and making everybody’s lives better.

Works Cited

“Become a Pharmacist – Careers – The College Board.” Become a Pharmacist – Careers – The College Board. Web. 06 May 2016.

“Pharmacist.” Careers. Web. 06 May 2016.

Roennevig, Michael. “Importance of Being a Pharmacist.” Work. Web. 06 May 2016.

“Role of a Pharmacist.” PharmCAS RSS. Web. 06 May 2016.