Pharmacist: What is the cost of hiring?

Why hire a pharmacist?

An ideal pharmacist hire can help your business take care of more clients and ensure that they’re receiving the correct medication. Patient care and safety and customer retention increase with a good hire.

• Increase the number of patients you can serve
• Provide excellent customer service to patients
• Improve customer safety

Deciding between a full-time vs. freelance pharmacist

Before starting your search for a pharmacist, consider whether you need a full-time or freelance employee.

Clinics, hospitals and pharmacies typically have a full-time pharmacist on staff. Freelance pharmacists work part-time, filling in for full-time pharmacists if they need time off work or working in environments that don’t require a pharmacist on full-time duty.

Freelance pharmacists are often used by clinics in rural areas or split their time between residential care homes and other facilities that require the skills of a pharmacist on an occasional basis. Freelance pharmacists also sometimes take on consulting roles or travel and work in pharmaceutical sales.

What are the types of pharmacists?

Pharmacists are highly skilled and educated medical professionals with many years of training in pharmacology. There are several levels of seniority in the profession. The most commonly seen positions are:

• Pharmacy Technician: A pharmacy technician is not a fully qualified pharmacist. These technicians assist pharmacists and do administrative and some patient-facing work. They have just one year of pharmaceutical-related postsecondary education.
• Staff Pharmacist: A staff pharmacist is a qualified pharmacist with a doctor of pharmacy postgraduate qualification. These pharmacists are qualified to dispense medication and work in clinical settings. Busy health care facilities may have multiple pharmacists working at them.
• Senior Clinical Pharmacist: A senior clinical pharmacist is one with several years of experience. These senior experts supervise staff pharmacists and are responsible for overseeing the dispensation of medicine. They also advise on complex medicine-related issues, manage staff and handle the day-to-day operation of the pharmacy.

Where to find pharmacists

To find the right pharmacist for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

• Recruit internally: Are some of your staff pharmacists now experienced enough to be promoted to a senior role? Investing in your current employees is good for morale and removes the challenges of bringing new hires up to speed.
• Network: Talk to other health care providers in your area and discuss openings. A facility may be scaling back or have a staff member who is looking for a job closer to home.
• Build connections with medical colleges: Colleges and universities produce graduates every year, giving employers the opportunity to recruit from an enthusiastic talent pool.
• Post your job online: Try posting your pharmacist job on Indeed to find and attract quality pharmacist candidates.

Skills to look for in a great Pharmacist

A great pharmacist candidate will have the following skills and attributes as well as work experience that reflects:

• Licensed pharmacist
• Well organized
• Knowledge of how medicines interact
• Works well in a team
• Good listening skills
• empathy for patients

Writing a pharmacist job description

A thoughtful description is important to finding qualified pharmacist candidates. A pharmacist job description includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position.

When writing your pharmacist job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting . These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on pharmacist jobs, according to Indeed data:

• Pharmacist
• Pharmacy
• Staff pharmacist
• Clinical pharmacist
• Remote pharmacist
• Work from home pharmacist
• Pharmacist work from home
• Pharmacists
• Pharmacist remote

Interviewing pharmacist candidates

Strong candidates for pharmacist positions are confident answering questions regarding:

• Drug interaction
• How to deal with drug addicts
• Health care system knowledge

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of pharmacist interview questions for examples (with sample answers).