If the medical field is something that interests you, becoming a pharmacist can be one of your career options. What stops you from starting your career as a pharmacist? Are the basic details about How to Become a Pharmacist in India? If yes then you’ve stepped onto the right page.
Pharmacists are medical professionals who provide medicines to the patients and also help them know how they are supposed to take their medicines. You might want to know about the work profile of a pharmacist in a detailed way.
This article will be your complete guide because it will take you through all these major points like qualifications needed to become a pharmacist, the average salary of a pharmacist, skills required to become a pharmacist, and other related questions on pharmacy because these things will help you make up your mind for your future. So let’s begin!
- Who is a Pharmacist?
- What do pharmacists do?
- Eligibility to Become a Pharmacist
- How to Become a Pharmacist in India?
- Specializations of Pharmacists
- Skills required to become a pharmacist
- List of Best Pharmacy Colleges & Books In India
- Employment Opportunities for Pharmacists
- Scope of Pharmacy in India
- Employment Sector/Industry for Pharmacist
- Top Recruiting Companies for Pharmacists
- Job Prospects
- Salary of a pharmacist in India
- FAQS on How to become a registered pharmacist in India
Who is a Pharmacist?
Pharmacists are professionals in the medical field who are supposed to supply medicines to patients along with the consumption instructions. The pharmacists provide all the safety instructions and ensure the overall well-being of their patients.
What do pharmacists do?
Pharmacists have a deep knowledge of medicines, their side effects, doses, etc. The job of a pharmacist is to supply medicines to the patients according to the prescription of their doctors and help them understand their doses and timings.
Pharmacists are responsible to make their patients aware of any side effects of the medicines they are supplying to them, any important information regarding emergency cases of drug reaction, general safety instructions, and overall they must ensure that their patients are well informed about their medicines.
Eligibility to Become a Pharmacist
You must have at least a Bachelor’s or Diploma after completing your class 12 with a science stream to become a pharmacist. This is a compulsory eligibility condition and an optional step thereafter is completing your master’s. The age limit for Pharm.D candidates is a minimum of 17 years and a maximum of 23 years on or before 31st December to get eligible. After satisfying the minimum education qualification & other eligibility, check out the steps to become a registered pharmacist in India below.
Do Refer: Naturopathy Courses
How to Become a Pharmacist in India? | Pharmacist Qualification in India
Here are the steps of becoming a pharmacist in India:
- 10+2 in science stream: If you have chosen science in your school, you will be glad to know that you are one step closer to becoming a pharmacist. Completing your class 12 in the science stream is a basic requirement to enroll in any undergraduate course for pharmacy. If you do not have science as your subject in school, you cannot pursue any medical undergraduate courses including pharmacy.
- Graduation or diploma: After the completion of your 10+2 in science, you will then have to get either a diploma or a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy. The courses you can undertake for these degrees are given below:
- Diploma in Pharmacy (DPharm): a 2-year diploma course which you can pursue after 12th grade.
- Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm): a 4-year course that provides you a bachelor’s degree which you can pursue after 12th grade.
- Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm D): a 6-year course that you can pursue after 12th grade. This includes 5 years of study and 1 year of internship.
- Post-graduation: You will have 2 options to choose from when going for a master’s.
- Master of Pharmacy (MPharm): You can pursue MPharm Course after completing BPharm. You can go into research or specialization via this 2-year course.
- Doctor of Pharmacy (Post Baccalaureate): a 3-year course that you can pursue after doing BPharm from an institute recognized by the Pharmacy Council of India.
- Holding a state license: To become a registered pharmacist, you need to apply to your state’s pharmacy council for a license. For different states, there are different procedures to get yourself registered as a pharmacist. It is advised for you to go through the procedure of the state you intend to practice in. However, you must note that you can only apply for one state license at a time.
- Bonus step – a Ph.D. in Pharmacy: Although this step is not compulsory, it will be beneficial for those who want to do research work.
Specializations of Pharmacists
There are various specializations available for pharmacy students which are listed below:
- Community Pharmacy
- Clinical Pharmacy
- Hospital Pharmacy
- Industrial Pharmacy
- Compounding Pharmacy
- Consulting Pharmacy
- Home Care Pharmacy
- Regulatory Pharmacy
- Ambulatory Care Pharmacy
Skills required to become a pharmacist
Various professional and behavioral skills are needed in the field of pharmacy. This is a job that comes with a lot of responsibility since it is directly related to the health and wellbeing of people. Following are the skills you must have if you want to become a pharmacist:
- Multitasking: managing more than one task at a time is a very common thing for pharmacists. They need to perform several tasks together such as checking prescriptions, giving medicines to patients, filling entries in their computer, retrieving information from their system, communicating amongst themselves and their patients, etc.
- A clear understanding of medicines: wrong medicines or doses can prove to be highly dangerous or even fatal for a person. Hence, a pharmacist needs to know all kinds of medicines, their compositions, and doses since they are the ones who supply the medicines and give directions for their consumption.
- Empathy and patience: working in the medical field requires a lot of empathy and patience since it’s all about handling and dealing with patients well. A pharmacist must be polite and kind.
- Basic computer handling skills: since everything is digital nowadays, it’s important for pharmacists to know how to perform basic operations such as storing data, retrieving data, and maintaining records in computers.
- Communication skills: communication is a key part of a pharmacist’s job. They need to be good speakers to convey their message properly to their patients as well as good listeners so that they can listen and understand the queries put forward for them.
List of Best Pharmacy Colleges & Books In India
Here is some information about the best colleges and books for a pharmacy that might interest you:
Best college/university for pharmacy in India
- Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi
- Panjab University, Chandigarh
- National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Punjab
- Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai
- BITS Pilani, Rajasthan
- National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Telangana
- Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Karnataka
- JSS College of Pharmacy, Tamil Nadu
Best books for pharmacy students
- Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology
- Ganong’s Review of Medical Physiology
- Jaypee Essentials of Medical Physiology
Employment Opportunities for Pharmacists | Pharmacists at Work
Pharmacists can choose to work in various fields such as:
- Hospitals
- Clinics
- Retail Sector
- Research and Development
- Sales and Marketing of Drugs
- Medical Underwriting
- Working In collaboration with healthcare professionals
Scope of Pharmacy in India
The scope of pharmacy is very vast in today’s world with the advancement of newer technologies and ways of healthcare. Along with the traditional roles such as supplying medicines and giving instructions about their consumption various modern roles are available for pharmacists such as sales and marketing of drugs digitally, clinical services via collaborations, etc.
Pharmacists can also give significant contributions to research work related to
- drug development,
- trials,
- manufacture,
- health policies, etc.
Employment Sector/Industry for Pharmacist
After becoming a pharmacist, one should fulfill all their duties irrespective of any other industry or employment sector. The following are some of the employment sectors that pharmacists can find themselves to perform duties:
- Checking for drug interactions
- Collaborating with health care professionals to review, plan, evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of a patient
- Counseling patients to use the appropriate amount of medication in time
- Education staff and patients on drug therapies
- Overseeing automatic refills and daily ordering
- Preparing special solutions and compounding medications
- Recommending drug changes when needed
- Reviewing prescriptions for accuracy
- Supervising and dispensing medications as per a physician’s prescription.
Top Recruiting Companies for Pharmacists
The companies that provide good employment opportunities to pharmacists are:
- Cipla
- Torrent Pharma
- Lupin
- Glenmark
- Abbott India
- Aurobindo Pharma
- Cadila Health
Job Prospects
A pharmacist can work in the private sector under various hospitals or start an independent pharmacy business. Pharmacists can also work in the government sector under the state or the central government.
Some of the highest-paying jobs in the pharma industry are:
- Pharmacy manager
- Pharmaceutical financial analyst
- Research scientist
- Regulatory specialist
- Biotechnology consultant
Salary of a pharmacist in India
The salary of a pharmacist also depends upon the state and company they are working with. The average salary of a pharmacist in India is INR 20,000 per month. However, the salary does increase according to the experience. The salary of an experienced pharmacist is up to INR 30,000 per month.
FAQS on How to become a registered pharmacist in India
1. How can I become a pharmacist after 12th in India?
After the 12th, you first need to complete either a diploma or an undergraduate course in pharmacy. This is the basic requirement to become a pharmacist in India. Furthermore, you can also pursue a master’s or doctorate.
2. Does pharmacy require qualifying NEET?
No, you do not need to qualify NEET to pursue a course in pharmacy. However, there are other entrance examinations conducted by institutes or the government to get entry into various Pharmacy Courses.
3. Is pharmacy a good career in India?
If you have a zeal to help people and medicine is something that interests you, pharmacy is a good career for you.
4. Can I study pharmacy part-time?
If you want to do a pharmacy course on a part-time basis, you must ensure that it is done at a laboratory that is approved by the Department of Pharmacy and the Pharmacy Council of India.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this How to Become a Pharmacist in India article was able to provide you with the information you were looking for! Good luck with your career, we hope that you will now be able to make an informed decision for yourself. For better study options and career options please visit our site NcertBooks.Guru and land on the Course Details page as it is a one-stop destination for all types of fields.