Discover 10 Career Options You Can Pursue with a Pharmacy Degree
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What Can You Do With a Pharmacy Degree?


April 22, 2025

One of the common misconceptions about pharmacists is that they only work in a community or hospital pharmacy. Once a person has earned his or her pharmacy degree, there are numerous possible career options in a wide range of settings.

Where do pharmacists work?

A student works in a pharmacy lab

Pharmacists may work in locations such as community pharmacies, hospitals, academia, laboratories, corporations, and more:

  1. Clinical pharmacists: Counsel patients, provide direct patient care and work with other healthcare professionals to optimize care.
  2. Infusion pharmacists: Prepare and administer medications via IVs or injections. They deal primarily with patients who are stable enough to be released from the hospital, but have diseases or conditions that require treatment beyond oral drugs.
  3. Remote pharmacists: Review orders, work to enhance patient safety and ensure timely medication management for mail-order pharmacies, telehealth services and more.
  4. Inpatient pharmacists: Manage patients who are acutely sick in the hospital by dispensing, managing, and monitoring of medications within the hospital.
  5. Clinical specialists: Provide patient care, focusing on a specific clinical specialty, and are considered clinical experts in their specialty areas. The specialties include, but not limited to:
    1. Ambulatory care (chronic conditions in outpatient setting)
    2. Cardiology (heart related diseases)
    3. Compounding (prepares customized dosage forms to meet an individual patient’s needs, such as medications that are not commercially available, medications that are not stable, or altered commercially available medications)
    4. Critical care/emergency medicine
    5. Infectious disease
    6. Nutrition support
    7. Oncology
    8. Pediatrics (babies, children and adolescents)
    9. Psychology (mental health)
    10. Geriatrics (senior adults)/long-term care (practice in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities, or as independent consultants to provide pharmaceutical services)
    11. Nuclear pharmacy
  6. Informatics pharmacist: Combines clinical and technical expertise to improve patient outcomes.
  7. Pharmaceutical industry: Work for pharmaceutical companies as medical liaison, or in research and development, or in market access pharma.
  8. Managed care pharmacists: Collaborate with insurance companies and providers to deliver cost-effective care. PCOM School of Pharmacy offers a managed care pharmacy concentration to help students prepare for a career in this area.
  9. Regulatory affairs: Concerned with regulatory affairs (i.e. FDA) and population impact of pharmacy law.
  10. Academia: with different backgrounds, such as clinical pharmacy practice, pharmaceutical science, and economic, social, and administrative sciences, pharmacist faculty will focus on teaching and developing future pharmacists.

Visit APhA’s Career Option Profiles for more information.

How can I earn a degree in pharmacy?

Learn more about the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program at PCOM School of Pharmacy, located in Suwanee, Georgia. PCOM School of Pharmacy also offers a joint PharmD/MBA degree, several concentration options and an Early Assurance Program for current college students.

A Degree in Pharmacy. A Future of Possibilities.

Complete this form to download our free program guide and opt-in to receive communications about the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program!

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Article originally published in 2018 with information written by Jayden Lee, PharmD, BCACP, CACP. Article last updated April 22, 2025.

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