Healthcare Practitioners
Pharmacists
Also called: Clinical Pharmacist, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist (CPS), Community Pharmacist, Hospital Pharmacist
US median pay
$140,910
per year, 2025
Job growth 2025–35
+5.2%
faster than average
Openings a year (US)
12,500
325,200 employed
Typical entry education
Doctoral or professional degree
Preparation 5/5 · Extensive preparation
What this job is
Dispense drugs prescribed by physicians and other health practitioners and provide information to patients about medications and their use. May advise physicians and other health practitioners on the selection, dosage, interactions, and side effects of medications.
What they do day to day
- Review prescriptions to assure accuracy, to ascertain the needed ingredients, and to evaluate their suitability.
- Collaborate with other health care professionals to plan, monitor, review, or evaluate the quality or effectiveness of drugs or drug regimens, providing advice on drug applications or characteristics.
- Work in hospitals or clinics or for Health Management Organizations (HMOs), dispensing prescriptions, serving as a medical team consultant, or specializing in specific drug therapy areas, such as oncology or nuclear pharmacotherapy.
- Provide information and advice regarding drug interactions, side effects, dosage, and proper medication storage.
- Provide specialized services to help patients manage conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, smoking cessation, or high blood pressure.
- Analyze prescribing trends to monitor patient compliance and to prevent excessive usage or harmful interactions.
- Maintain records, such as pharmacy files, patient profiles, charge system files, inventories, control records for radioactive nuclei, or registries of poisons, narcotics, or controlled drugs.
- Prepare sterile solutions or infusions for use in surgical procedures, emergency rooms, or patients' homes.
- Compound and dispense medications as prescribed by doctors and dentists, by calculating, weighing, measuring, and mixing ingredients, or oversee these activities.
- Assess the identity, strength, or purity of medications.
Skills and knowledge that matter most
Skills
- Time Management3.9/5
- Social Perceptiveness3.9/5
- Service Orientation3.9/5
- Judgment and Decision Making3.9/5
- Complex Problem Solving3.9/5
- Coordination3.4/5
- Management of Personnel Resources3.1/5
- Systems Evaluation3.0/5
Knowledge
- Medicine and Dentistry4.6/5
- English Language4.4/5
- Biology4.4/5
- Mathematics4.2/5
- Chemistry4.1/5
- Education and Training3.9/5
Importance rated by people working in the job (1 = not important, 5 = extremely important).
Education and preparation
Preparation level 5 of 5 — Extensive preparation. Usually a graduate degree (master's, PhD, MD, JD) and extensive experience.
Typical entry education (BLS): Doctoral or professional degree.
Highest education of people in this job:
- Doctoral degree78%
- Bachelor's degree11%
Who this job suits
Mostly Investigative
Ideas, research and solving problems
Social
Helping, teaching and caring for people
Conventional
Organising data, details and procedures
Based on the Holland (RIASEC) interest profile for this occupation.