Hospital Pharmacist
What the work is
Prepares, dispenses, reviews and monitors medication of individual patients, and provides medication-related advice to patients in a multidisciplinary team of Health Professionals to deliver safe, patient-centred care in a hospital or clinical setting.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Obtains medication histories, reviews inpatient charts and medication action plans, and administers and prescribes medications to ensure quality use of medicines
- Provides medication information to doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, patients and carers
- Facilitates the safe continuity of medication management and counselling to patients and carers on discharge from hospital
- Performs medication monitoring and adverse drug reaction management
- Collaborates with Health Professionals to develop medication management plans, including partnered pharmacist medication charting
- Maintains records of the supply of prescription medicines, controlled drugs and other restricted substances
- Supervises and coordinates the work of pharmacy technicians and pharmacy interns
- Stores and preserves vaccines, serums and other drugs subject to deterioration
- Participates in research, education, quality improvement activities, peer review and interdisciplinary ward rounds and meetings
- May compound and manufacture medicines when preparations are not available
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a community pharmacy on a busy suburban main street. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A regular customer tells you the advice you gave last week actually worked
- You catch a problem with a prescription before it reaches the patient
- A nervous new parent leaves confident about what to give their child
Hard days
- A queue out the door while a phone rings and a prescription needs checking
- A customer who is angry because a medicine is out of stock
- Having to say no to someone who is sure they know what they need
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 263432, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.