Senior Care Pharmacist: Job Description, Education, Skills and Duties, Earnings and Outlook
Submitted by: paula
Job Overview Drugs are to which doctors and patients rely on, for prophylaxis, treatment and diagnosis. The health care professionals who are responsible in dispensation or medications both in prescription and non prescription or over the counter classes are called pharmacists.Pharmacist are of different levels. They move from the lower postion or heirarcy to a higher one depending on the years pf experience and proven excellence in their professional work performance. Senior care pharmacists are already at the top level of heirarchy in the department. They may advise nurses, may be consultants of doctors or physicians on the medications, as well as provide patients instructions in taking and storing the medications for home use. As senior care pharmacists, they focus on rendering expertise regarding medical conditions of the elderly, as well as the appropriate treatment for their conditions. The specialization on this has been developed as many factors, related to degenerative process are affecting the pharmacokinetics and the pahrmacodynamics of the drugs in the body of an elderly, and that they may present multiple medical conditions with treatments affecting one another.
Education, Knowledge and Trainings Required
As early as high school, one can start preparing to become a senior care pharmacist. Courses such as sciences (biology, physics, and chemistry), mathematics (trignonometry, algebra, statistics), and computer classes may be a helpful foundation before going into an undergraduate study. For the postsecondary training, the bachelor's degree in pharmacy has been phased out, and has been replaced by a 6 year doctorate degree in Pharmacy. This is under the mandate of the ACPE or the Accreditaion Council for Pharmacy Education, that stipulates the newer curriculum of doctor of pharmacy with six years of study, in minimum, to complete. All the 50 states of the U.S requires for them to pass a licensure examination or the state's board to before being able to practice as a senior care pharmacist professional.
Skills and Abilities
Senior Care Pharmacist should be genuinely concerned with the welfare of the elderly patients. They should also be detailed oriented and hardworking. Expertise that are expeceted of them as pharmacists should always be updated. In addition, communication skills, interpersonal skills should be developed, as they will be costantly working with the health care team, doing consulting work, as well as interacting with the elderly people and their families.
Duties
Senior care pharmacist work closely and collaboratively with the other health care professionals in the hospital. In taking care of the treatments and the elderly patient as a whole, they contribute by advising these health professionals on what medicines to use, how it can be administered effectively, as well as provide them with a training on the correct usage of these.
They also conduct planning and health teaching on the patient's drug regimen, as well as monitor the patient's responses and progress with the pahrmacological care rendered. If needed, they may participate in adjusting and revising the medicines of the patient, in collaboration with the physicians in charge. They also do onsite visits to meet with the patients outside the hospital, and evaluate further what improvements can be made to the their treatment regimen, as part of their regular drug regimen reviews.
Earnings and Job Outlook
Senior care pharmacist areconsidered to be at the rightmost or higher end of the payscale within the estimated salary graphs of all the pharmacists.The median earnings of a senior care pharmacists points to around 89,000 U.S dollars per annum. In addition to the basic pay, they enjoy other benefits such as paid vacation leave, dental and medical insurance, and bonuses.The employment or job opportunities, as predicted by the U.S. Department of Labor is expected to grow rapidly than the average until the year 2014.
Paula Hiz is a researcher and a human resource specialist who helps newly graduates, job applicants and post graduate professionals be aware of their job opportunities and available trainings for skills and practice upgrading.
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Word Count: 661 Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 Time: 6:47 AM
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