Pharmacists deal with the preparation, dispensing, and appropriate use of medicines.

As a pharmacist, you prepare and distribute medicine. You also provide information regarding a drug’s dosage and its possible side effects and interactions. You help the physician to monitor patients’ health to ensure medicines are effective. Some pharmacists also do compounding—the actual mixing of the medicine. You might want to choose a specialty. As a community pharmacist, you dispense medications, teach patients about the use of prescription and over-the-counter medications and communicate with the patient’s physician. You also advise patients about general health topics such as diet, exercise, and stress. If you choose the job of health care pharmacist, you dispense medications and communicate the effects of the drugs to the doctor. You make sterile solutions for intravenous injection and plan and evaluate drug programs. As a home health care pharmacist, you’d oversee drug therapy and prepare intravenous injections and other medications for home-based patients. Some pharmacists specialize in specific drug therapy areas such as oncology, nuclear, geriatric or psychiatric pharmacy.