CAREER IN PHARMACY

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You probably do not know much about the profession of pharmacy or the person of the pharmacist. To some the pharmacist is no other person than “the chemist man”, while not a few call him the “drug seller”. Very many people cannot differentiate between the pharmacist and the physician
. To you, who care to know, welcome on board as we delve a little into the world of pharmacy.

Pharmacy, though very related to other health care professions, remains a distinct and a very unique healthcare profession.  The pharmacist on the other hand, is the health professional that is trained in pharmacy school, qualified and licensed or authorized by the appropriate authority to practice pharmacy.

Pharmacy is a health science concerned with the study of all there is in drugs, drug products, medicines, medicinal products and the appropriate application of such knowledge in the manufacturing of drugs and in the right selection of drugs for treatment of diseases or ailment(s) in patient(s). Pharmacists then are the medication or drug experts on the health care team. They are so called because they are the main professional in medicines having the knowledge, skills, and expertise to be trusted with the safe and effective use of drugs.

The field of pharmacy is very broad encompassing:

1. Pharmacognosy: the study of drugs of natural origin i.e. from plants, animals, and mineral resources.
2. Pharmaceutical Chemistry: the study of how different active molecules (active ingredients) interact, their chemical structures, how their activities are being affected by substituent groups on them, their chemical synthesis, etc
3. Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology: the study of the preparation, manufacturing, formulation into different dosage forms i.e. tablets, capsules, syrups, injectable etc.  
4. Pharmaceutical Microbiology: the study of antibiotics, and how to prevent drugs from being contaminated by micro-organisms.
5. Clinical Pharmacy: the study of diseases and how drugs can be used in treating/managing them, or pharmacotherapy.
6. Pharmacology: the study of the individual drugs, how they work, what they do, how they do it, what they do to the body (pharmacodynamics), what the body does to them (pharmacokinetics),when not to take them (precautions or contra-indications), where they work, what should not be taken with them (interactions), etc

Why career in Pharmacy?