What do pharmacists do?
I know pharmacists dispense medication and find any prescription errors I’m just confused as to why they have to go through 8 years of school to do that. I was recently able to shadow a pharmacist and it seems as if the computer will alert the pharmacist if a medication prescription has an error in it. It also seems like the pharmacy techs are also able to count pills and because the computer flags any prescription errors the pharmacy tech could probably also fix any errors.
However I’m sure pharmacists do more than what I saw in my couple of hours of shadowing I’m just not sure what else they do. It would be kind of messed up if they went through 8 years of school just to count pills and have a computer do the rest so I imagine a pharmacist has responsibilities that goes beyond that.
In: Other
I’m at work now, hospital pharmacist here. We verify all medication orders and make changes as needed. Yes, the system flags possible problems but we have to sort through that mess and find the actial ones. We also answer a lot of questions. Doctors and nurses call often. Retail pharmacists get questions from patients more often. Of all the medical professionals we are the most accessible.
The education takes a lot so that’s why 6 to 8 years.
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