Pharmacy being a niche field does not attract many candidates to opt for this program in colleges. Due to this common perception of the people, the country saw a decline in the number of students opting to study the discipline of pharmacy. This has obviously led to a gradual decrease in the number of pharmacists in the country. As a developed nation, Canada is bound to develop new drugs which could enhance in further developments. With less number of pharmacists in Canada, doors have definitely opened for the foreign trained pharmacists to seek permanent settlement opportunities in the nation. This occupation is present in Canada’s new list of 29 occupations for immigration under federal skilled worker program to Canada. An applicant under this occupation can be working in a pharmacy shop or at hospital. He could also be employed with manufacturing companies in a capacity where the designated staff must have pharmacy as a qualification.

Qualifying Criteria for Immigration

1. The applicant must have a Bachelors and / or masters of degree in pharmacy.
2. An applicant for Immigration under this category must have experience of at least one year as a pharmacist or related field that required qualifications as a pharmacist
3. Overall, a person must have experience of around 2-4 years; actual number of years of experience to apply under this occupation is dependent on many factors such as whether the applicant is married and his English language skills.

Duties & Responsibilities

Some of the duties of a pharmacist vary according to this title or designation. A community or a hospital pharmacist is expected to provide some or all of the duties mentioned below:

• The applicant must check the prescription for the appropriate dosage of the drug.
• Filling the right containers in appropriate amounts with the compound prescribed (pharmaceutical product) by calculating, measuring and mixing the various amounts of drugs with other ingredients.
• Advising and dispensing (the pharmaceutical drugs) to customers and professionals from the health care sector.
• Keeping a record of the customers’ medication profile which also includes the registry of narcotic, poisons and other controlled drugs.
• Maintaining and order stock of supplies of various pharmaceuticals.

On the other hand, some of the duties that an industrial pharmacist is expected to perform are:

• Taking part in research initiatives for developing new drugs.
• Product formulation for drugs developed by medical researchers.
• Testing products for stability. Also, inferring the elimination and the absorption patterns.
• Quality control of new products to meet the required standards during production.

However, for both the above mentioned pharmacists, the job description might involve much more than what has been mentioned. So, you are a pharmacist, write to us at [email protected] to know more about Canadian immigration.