Time to Explore Pharmacy Career Opportunities in the Private Sectors

Abstract

Pharmacy is a dynamic healthcare profession that allow role expansion into patient-care, manufacturing, management as well as entrepreneurship. The private sector provides a lucrative and promising platform for budding young pharmacists to build their career in healthcare. Apart from training opportunity and room for salary increment, the career pathway for a pharmacist in private practice is also diverse and bright. Fresh pharmacy graduates should explore this established career pathways. First, the growing number of private hospitals and role expansion of the pharmacist directly increases the demand of pharmacists in these private hospitals. Second, pharmacists are also a core team member in the pharmaceutical industry including the manufacturing sector not just because of the law requirement but also their expertise in formulation, production quality control, drug analysis, product registration and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). Third, the community pharmacy also provides a high potential platform to expand a young pharmacist's en-trepreneurial skills, along with the role as a clinician and primary healthcare provider. Across Ministry of Health facilities as well as private healthcare, the pharmacist's roles are transitioning from product-focus to direct patient care. The shift to patient medicine management has long been successfully implemented in developed countries, including Singapore and Australia, both at public and private facilities. The private sector, arising from the holistic and multiplicity nature of practice, is certainly as rewarding and job-satisfaction fulfilling as the public sector because the pharmacists interact in their multi-faceted role as dispenser, clinician, retailer, entrepreneur and primary health advisor.