What Skills Do I Need to Become a Pharmacist Assistant?

If you would like to become a pharmacist assistant, it can be helpful to develop good organizational skills as you may often need to multi-task. Working as a pharmacy assistant can require you deal with many types of people ranging from doctors to handicapped persons, so it is imperative you have good communications skills. Some medical knowledge can be helpful because you should have a basic knowledge about common diseases and the medicines used to treat them. Since you will often measure and dispense prescriptions, it is very important to be proficient in math.

While working as a pharmacy assistant, you may need to answer the telephone, operate a cash register, and dispense prescription medications among other duties. Many times, you may be expected to perform these tasks very quickly. Being able to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously can help you when you become a pharmacist assistant because you will often be working in a very fast-paced environment.

Good customer relations skills are also important if you would like to become a pharmacist assistant. This is because you will deal with many types of people during the course of an average work day. Some may be highly educated professionals such as doctors or pharmacists, while others could be average people who are sick or disabled. You will be required to communicate with all of these individuals while being polite and respectful, so good personal relations skills are very important in this line of work.

Reading and deciphering prescriptions can be part of your daily routine, so you will need some basic medical knowledge to do this. It can be a good idea to stay up-to-date with the latest medicines so you will know a little bit about them before you have to dispense a prescription. Many pharmacy assistant schools also require students to take courses in anatomy and medical terminology, which can help you better communicate with other health care professionals after you become a pharmacist assistant.

Performing calculations could be part of your daily routine, so you may want to perfect your math skills before you become a pharmacist assistant. Most medications are dispensed in metric units, which means may need to know how to convert them from English measurements. Accuracy and attention to detail are very important when dispensing drugs, so you will need to be able to add, subtract, multiply different units of measure quickly and precisely.