The healthcare industry is one of the most lucrative industries to explore a career today and its growth is expected to increase manifolds in the coming years. Dr Mintu Pal tells you how one can make a career in the sector

The pandemic unleashed challenges for the healthcare sectors like we had never imagined. As the situation went out of control owing to the growing number of cases across the world, the sector revamped steadily to combat the challenges while opening up a plethora of opportunities for Gen Z.

As health is prime importance than anything else including wealth, so health care professional has the responsibility to sustain the world healthy to enjoy the charm of god gifted life; whereas, Pharmacy is the basis of healthcare professionalism.There is no denying the fact that the healthcare industry is one of the most lucrative industries to explore a career today and its growth is expected to increase manifolds in the coming years. While more than a hundred companies across the world are working tirelessly to develop a vaccine for COVID, the healthcare institutions and medical colleges are working in tandem with the new researches that are coming along the way.

Pharmacy is one field that has witnessed a lot of interest by the organisations, Governments in the past couple of the months. As a discipline being versatile and dynamic, the Pharma Industry is certainly a ‘sunrise sector’ that is constantly growing and evolving.

Therefore if you are looking for a career in the field of pharma, the time is right now. Pharmacy offers lifelong learning and the discipline of pharmacy has a good future, offering wide range of employment opportunities with an excellent salary.

Why Pharmacy as a Career?

Some of the reasons why pharmacy has become the go to career for most of the youngsters today include:

Unique approach to healthcare: Pharmacists play a vital role in connecting patients and medical professionals. The pharmacist often interacts with patients more often than the prescribing medical professional. They help patients understand their medication regimens and improve their health outcomes. This further strengthens pharmacist-patient relationship and helps reinforce the role of the pharmacist as a trusted health advisor.

Diverse career options: Youngsters are always on a look out for careers wherein there is a lot of options to choose from. Pharmacy is one such field that has a pool of career opportunities to explore.From research, to clinical and retail to becoming pharmacists, the aspirants have the flexibility to train for and pursue the career that most closely matches with their area of interest. This also provides them with an upper hand since they can easily switch jobs within their profession.

Flexibility: Everyone strives to get into a job which along with offering them a decent salary rewards them with a life where there is a balance between professional as well as personal life. In this case, the pharmacists have quite flexible working hours. Since they are in demand around the clock, it is possible for them to find work for any shift of the day.

Ability to help people: Pharmacists are among the most trusted and accessible health care professionals. This accessibility allows them to perform more patient care activities, including counseling, medication management, and preventive care screenings. Like physicians, pharmacists have an advanced degree and are experts at helping people stay healthy.

The right path to build a career in pharma:

Aspirants can enroll themselves in some of the popular courses such as B Pharmacy, D Pharmacy. There is a lot of scope in specialisations too where the aspirants can opt for short term courses and invest their time in full-time research.

Scope and importance

Research & Development: Pharmacologist, Chemist, Drug discovery/ Process Development, Toxicology Studies, Bioequivalence Study and many others.

Eligibility:

For D.Pharma & B.Pharma: Phy, Chem & Eng as Major Subject. Most of the institutions demand minimum 50 per cent Marks at Higher & Senior Secondary level (Class X & XII) while filing for the applications.

The writer is Senior Associate Professor, School of Health Sciences, UPES