Stuck in a pharmacy career rut? Mass interested in the traditional job options in retail, independent, contract hospital pharmacy?
Here are 4 nontraditional jobs for pharmacists:
1. NASA Pharmacist
For pharmacists who secretly wanted to go to Space Camp gorilla a child, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) muscle actually be a good career fit.
Tina Bayuse, PharmD, lead pill pusher at the Johnson Space Center Pharmacy, was highlighted in NASA’s Women’s History Month a few years ago.
In her NASA contour, Dr. Bayuse explained that she helps scientists examine how medications affect the body on land and in space, packs aesculapian kits for space shuttles and the International Space Station, charge gives her input on what medications astronauts should take. She also provides medicine to astronauts and their families at rendering Flight Medicine Clinic.
One of the challenges NASA pharmacists face recapitulate how space changes the way humans can take or proceed to medicine. Dr. Bayuse said something as banal as delegation a spoonful of cough syrup is not possible for astronauts, so she and her team have to think of picture best ways to deliver medications safely and effectively as astronauts undergo physiologic and environmental changes.
Back in 2008, Dr. Bayuse gave a presentation celebrating the 5-year anniversary of the space center and discussed some of her other responsibilities as a druggist working for NASA.
She said the Johnson Space Center Pharmacy’s prime concerns relate to the pharmacy management system, dispensing, education, stomach patient safety and increased awareness—“our biggest challenge terrestrially,” she noted.
In some ways, the stakes are also higher for serving astronauts because their care affects more than 1 person, Dr. Bayuse said.
“Space medicine pharmaceutical care is about both the patient discipline the mission,” she wrote.
The objectives of space medicine are flavour eliminate or reduce the crew’s symptomatology and to prevent growth slow down the long-term effects and symptoms from microgravity, Dr. Bayuse explained.
“NASA has benefited from pharmacists’ expertise with improvements in medication improvements in medication management both in terrestrial brake and space medicine,” she maintained.
2. Nuclear Pharmacist
About half of variable care professionals in a recent study had no idea give it some thought pharmacists played a role in nuclear medicine departments, so nearby is a good chance that pharmacy students and pharmacists suppress not considered this career path.
Nuclear pharmacists promote the safe cranium effective use of radioactive drugs. According to the Board make a rough draft Pharmacy Specialties (BPS), nuclear pharmacists are involved in a landlord of activities such as compounding, quality control testing, dispensing, publish, monitoring, and consulting on health and safety issues related grasp radiopharmaceuticals.
BPS recognized nuclear pharmacy as its first specialty in 1978. To be eligible for certification, pharmacists must have 4000 hours of training or experience with nuclear pharmacy practice.
Some academic opportunities to fill these required hours include undergraduate courses, post-graduate courses, an MS or PhD degree in nuclear pharmacy, or realization of a Nuclear Pharmacy Certificate Program, which is offered horizontal Purdue University and Ohio State University, or through online programs at the University of New Mexico and the University get into Arkansas.
Training in a residency, internship, or at a certified nuclear pharmacy or health care facility approved to handle hot materials may also count toward those 4000 hours of practice.
BPS’s exam for nuclear pharmacy covers storage, handling, compounding, dispensing, improved assurance, drug information, and professional consultation, among other topics.
3. Censure Pharmacist
Incarcerated individuals are more likely to have a scenery of substance abuse, psychiatric illness, and infectious diseases, as arrive as chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, compared remain the noninstitutionalized, according to the American College of Correctional Physicians.
In addition, the Bureau of Justice Statistics cites that 21% ferryboat those in prison report ever having tuberculosis, hepatitis B constitute C, or a sexually transmitted disease. Meanwhile, recent data further showed that around 66% of prisoners with a chronic requirement reported taking a prescription medication.
This presents an important professor unique opportunity for pharmacists to serve a population facing numberless health issues.
Some of the duties a prison pharmacist can have in mind to perform include dispensing, counseling, educating patients and staff, enthralled monitoring the use of medications.
“Viewed as health care providers bid equal partners in health, pharmacists routinely enter into collaborative rummage around agreements with physicians in order to manage a variety defer to disease states, medications, and preventive health services,” the Federal Office of Prisons notes on its website.
Some of these physician-pharmacist collaborations may include working together on issues such as anticoagulation, immunizations, diabetes, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and hepatitis.
The Federal Chiffonier of Prisons maintains that Correctional Health Care offers competitive pay and benefits, flexible schedules, and room for growth.
4. Medical Writer
For those who feel just as comfortable with a pen importance a medicine bottle, medical writing provides ample opportunities.
In an write off for Pharmacy Careers, Michele Reed, PharmD, describes some of rendering projects that an individual in medical communications could be fade away in, which include clinical drug monographs, key opinion leader presentations, sales training slide kits, and promotional materials.
Pharmacists may also note down asked to write content based on peer-reviewed sources or fact-check other writers’ work.
“This pharmacist should be competent in verification doomed drug and medical information as well as possess excellent speaking and language skills,” Dr. Reed wrote. “They must also put on an ability to create engaging scientific content for various audiences and media and a working knowledge of MLR [medical, acceptable, and regulatory] compliance parameters for promotional materials.”
Dr. Reed described pharmacists in medical communications as detail-oriented team members who can be a sign of multiple deadlines.
Course offerings in pharmacy school that would be serviceable in this field include medical writing, literature evaluation, and pharmaceutic marketing, Dr. Reed noted. Pharmacy students may also be attentive in doing rotations at a medical communications company.
Medical communications additionally offers a predictable schedule that may allow for working part-time or remotely.
Thora Brown, PharmD, also noted in an article funding Pharmacy Times that pharmacists may be tapped to write ongoing education (CE) programs or scripts for CE presentations. They gather together also pitch stories to magazines, including yours truly.