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Exploring Trades and Occupations

Pharmacists

On this page

  • Job description
  • Hourly wage
  • Job prospects for 2021-2025
  • Sectors of activity
  • Training and requirements
  • Main skills and characteristics
  • Personality profiles (RIASEC)
  • Additional information

Job description

These individuals evaluate drug therapy and ensure the appropriate use of medications in order to detect and prevent medication-related problems. They prepare, store, and dispense medication to maintain health, restore health, or provide appropriate symptom relief. They are self-employed or self-employed in:

  • Retail and hospital pharmacies
  • Pharmaceutical companies
  • Government agencies and services
  • Government business
  • Regulatory matters

Environment

  • Controlled ambient temperature
  • Hazardous chemical

Main tasks

Community and Institutional Pharmacists

  • Fill prescriptions and ensure that drug therapy meets the health needs of patients.
  • Extend or adjust doctor’s prescriptions.
  • Analyze patient records to ensure that the medications chosen are suitable and adequate for their condition (right dose, right product, drug interactions, etc.).
  • Educating patients and other health care professionals about dosage, contraindications, adverse reactions, etc.
  • Provide a pharmaceutical opinion.
  • Ensure the packaging, distribution, and storage of drugs and pharmaceutical products.
  • Initiate, monitor, and adjust patients’ drug therapy.
  • Counsel patients on the use of non-prescription drugs and prescribe them when clinically or otherwise appropriate.
  • Monitor and coordinate the activities of other pharmacists and staff.
  • Administer a medication by different routes of administration to demonstrate appropriate use for vaccination or in an emergency.
  • Prescribe medications for certain health conditions:
    • Minor health conditions (allergic conjunctivitis, eczema, allergic rhinitis, etc.)
    • Preventive treatments (smoking cessation, emergency oral contraception, antibiotic prevention in people exposed to a tick bite [Lyme disease], etc.)
    • Treatment of influenza or shingles.

Industrial Pharmacists

  • Participate in research for the development of new drugs.
  • Formulate, test, and verify the stability, absorption, and elimination of new drugs.
  • Coordinate clinical investigations of new drugs.
  • Control the quality of drugs during production to ensure compliance with applicable standards.
  • Develop informative material concerning the uses, therapeutic effects, and risks of certain drugs.
  • Evaluate drug labelling, packaging, and advertising.
  • Promote pharmaceuticals to health professionals.
  • Participate in pharmacovigilance functions (document and evaluate adverse reaction cases, assess product risks, etc.).

Hourly wage

The hourly wage is calculated by averaging wages from 2019 to 2021.
Minimum
$48.00
Median
$57.00
Maximum
$69.93

Job prospects for 2021-2025

sr.comparaison-region.titre

Les 2 champs de sélection ci-dessous vous permettent de comparer 2 régions. Les données des régions seront automatiquement mises à jour à la sélection. Par défaut, la province de Québec est sélectionnée pour la première région.

Job prospects for 2021-2025

Job prospects

All of Québec

Non available
Limited
Good
Very good
Very good

All of Québec

Non available
Limited
Good
Very good
Non available

Total jobs for 2020

All of Québec

10,000

All of Québec

na

Gender distribution

All of Québec

Not available.
69.1% Female
30.9% Male

Not available.
  • 69.1% Female
  • 30.9% Male

Job types

All of Québec

Not available.
Full time
Part time

Not available.
  • Full time
  • Part time

Yearly wage on 2015

All of Québec

$111,000

All of Québec

Other characteristics

All of Québec

  • Non traditional for men
  • None

All of Québec

  • Non traditional for men
  • None

Sectors of activity

All of Québec

Not available.
  1. Retail Trade
    NAICS 44, 45
    78% of jobs
  2. Health Care
    NAICS 621, 622, 623
    19% of jobs
  3. Wholesale Trade
    NAICS 41
    1% of jobs
  4. Public Administration
    NAICS 91
    1% of jobs
  5. Petroleum, Coal and Chemical Manufacturing
    NAICS 324, 325
    1% of jobs
  6. Others
    0% of jobs

All of Québec

Not available.
  1. Retail Trade
    NAICS 44, 45
    78% of jobs
  2. Health Care
    NAICS 621, 622, 623
    19% of jobs
  3. Wholesale Trade
    NAICS 41
    1% of jobs
  4. Public Administration
    NAICS 91
    1% of jobs
  5. Petroleum, Coal and Chemical Manufacturing
    NAICS 324, 325
    1% of jobs
  6. Others
    0% of jobs

Training and requirements

Formation

Most training programs are offered in French only.

University

Pharmacology or pharmaceutical science
Bachelor’s degree

Placement rate: 63.9%

26.5% of graduates pursue further studies

More on graduates’ employment situation
Master’s degree

Placement rate: 81.9%

13.3% of graduates pursue further studies

More on graduates’ employment situation
This discipline is taught in the following institutions:
  • Université de Montréal
  • Université de Sherbrooke
  • Université Laval
  • McGill University

Also required

  • Membership in the Ordre des pharmaciens du Québec (OPQ [Quebec Order of Pharmacists]).

Sometimes required

  • Knowledge of the existing IT system may be required or an asset.
  • A Master’s degree in advanced drug therapy may be required to practice in a health care facility.

Main skills and characteristics

Skills

  • Data collection
  • Information processing
  • Judgment and decision-making
  • Reading comprehension
  • Active listening
  • Teaching
  • Result evaluation
  • Written expression
  • Oral expression
  • Service oriented
  • Critical thought
  • Science
  • Active learning
  • Time management
  • Human resource management
  • Social perception
  • Solving complex problems
  • Coordination
  • Mathematics
  • System analysis
  • Negotiation
  • Persuasion
  • Learning strategies
More Less skills

Abilities

  • Written comprehension
  • Oral comprehension
  • Verbal skills
  • Awareness of issues
  • Near vision
  • Speech clarity
  • Written expression
  • Deductive reasoning
  • Inductive reasoning
  • Classification
  • Information organization
  • Speech recognition
  • Selective attention
  • Mathematical reasoning
  • Basic numeracy
  • Perception speed
  • Digital dexterity
  • Idea generation
  • Time sharing
  • Colour perception and distinction
  • Distance vision
More Less abilities

Knowledge and attributes

  • Capacity to work under pressure
  • Autonomy
  • Sense of responsibility
  • Capacity to influence and mobilize
  • Capacity to work in a team
  • Capacity to delegate
  • Commitment
  • Capacity to be discrete
  • Respect standards and regulations
  • Knowledge of medicine or dentistry

Interests

  • Direct, organize, and manage
  • Draft, communicate, and inform
  • Watch, defend, and secure
  • Carry out research
  • Assist and advise
  • Teach or educate
  • Assist or care for people

Personality profiles (RIASEC)

Investigative
People with this profile prefer relying on theoretical knowledge before acting. They like observation, analysis and problem solving.
Enterprising
People with this profile prefer having responsibilities, influencing others and responding to challenges.
Social
People with this profile prefer to be in contact with others, in particular to entertain, help or teach them.
Additional information

Note about CNP

Occupational information is provided based on the National Occupational Classification (NOC) 2016. The 5-digit code of the NOC 2021 is shown in parentheses for information purposes only for occupations that correspond to those of NOC 2016.

Official name of the NOC 3131 (31120)

Pharmacists

Job titles

  • Clinical pharmacist
  • Community pharmacist
  • Pharmacist
  • Retail pharmacist
  • Health care institution pharmacist
  • Pharmacist consultant
  • Industrial pharmacist
  • Drug information pharmacist
  • Hospital pharmacist
More Less job titles

Skill type

Health

Related occupations

  • Biologists and related scientists
  • Other medical technologists and technicians (except dental health)
  • Retail and wholesale trade managers

See also

  • Glossary (PDF 229 Kb)
  • Québec emploi This hyperlink will open in a new window.

Last update: December 22, 2022

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