The Diploma in Pharmacy or D.Pharma typically does not have any important job roles. This is because the demand for diploma students is rather less when compared to degree students when it comes to the pharmacy field. But on the other hand, the degree students with B.Pharma have abundant job opportunities.
However, after some research we were able to come out with some job roles available after D.Pharma. in this article we have tried to explain some of the limited careers available for the D. Pharma students.
They are as under:
1. Community Pharmacist
Role
As a Community Pharmacist one is responsible to dispense and distribute the medicines. A community pharmacist will work with legal and ethical guidelines to ensure the correct and safe supply of medical products to the general public.
Responsibility
As a Community Pharmacist one is required to:
- Dispense prescription medicines to the public
- Ensure that different treatments are compatible
- Check dosage and ensure that medicines are correctly and safely supplied in the communities
- Supervise the preparation of any medicines if required
- Keep a register of all the controlled drugs for legal and stock control purposes
- Coordinate with doctors about prescriptions
- Advice the public on the treatment of minor ailments
- Undertake medicine use reviews from the patients
- Manage, supervise and train pharmacy support staff
2. Hospital Pharmacist
Hospital Pharmacists are responsible for the purchase and supply of medicines used in hospitals. As a hospital pharmacist one should have a detailed understanding of the medicines that are used in hospitals. He/she is responsible to dispense prescriptions for patients. He/she is involved in purchasing and quality testing of medicines. As a hospital pharmacist one is responsible to keep the well-stocked medicines every time and should be aware of all the medicines available.
Responsibilities
As a Hospital Pharmacist one is needed to:
- Check prescriptions for errors, ensuring they are all appropriate and safe for the patient
- Provide advice and dosage of medicines and the most appropriate form of medication, that may be an injection, ointment, tablet or an inhaler.
- Discuss treatments with patients, relatives, community pharmacists and general practitioners
- Make sure the medicines are stored appropriately and securely
- Supervise the work of less experienced and less qualified staff
- Write guidelines for drug use within the hospital and implement hospital regulations
- Provide information on expenditure of drugs
- Prepare and quality check sterile medications for example intravenous medications
3. Medical Sales Representative
Role
Medical sales representatives are widely referred to as MRs. They act as a key link between medical pharmaceutical companies and healthcare professionals. As an MR one is required to sell the company’s products like medicines, prescription drugs and medical equipment to a variety of customers like doctor’s nurses, pharmacists. An MR is required to work strategically and try to increase awareness and use of pharmaceutical and medical products.
Responsibilities
As a Medical Sales Representative (MR) one is needed to:
- Arrange appointments with doctors, pharmacists and hospital medical teams
- Make presentations to doctors, practice staff and nurses in clinics, hospitals and pharmacists
- Organise conferences for doctors and other medical staff
- Build and maintain positive working relationships with doctors and other medical staff
- Manage budgets for catering, outside speakers, conferences and hospitality
- Keep detailed records of all the contacts
- Reach and if possible, exceed annual sales targets
- Plan work schedules and weekly and monthly timetables with the area sales manager to discuss future targets
- Keep up to date with the latest clinical data supplied by the company and interpret, present and discuss this data with health professionals during presentations
- Analyse sales data to improve results and make sure resources are effectively allocated
- Develop strategies for increasing opportunities to meet and talk to contacts in the medical and healthcare sector.
Salary packages
As a diploma in pharmacy students or D.Pharma students one will be able to earn around 2 lakhs to 4 lakhs per annum. The salary also depends on the location and recruiter. The fresh graduates will be earning less while the experienced will be earning more when compared to freshers.
Final Lines
As a Diploma in Pharmacy student one can find limited but decent job roles in the job markets. The diploma in pharmacy students will be learning only basic concepts about pharmaceuticals, so there is not much demand for them. But the B.Pharm students have abundant job opportunities in various pharmaceutical companies.
The students who are interested in the essence of pharmacy can join D.Pharma courses, but it is always advised for them to pursue their degree in pharmacy to have better career opportunities. By completing the D.Pharma the students can join as pharmacists in local pharmacy shops and have an exposure to the pharmaceutical practices.