Senior Care Pharmacists

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) predicts that overall job opportunities for pharmacists will decline 3 percent through 2029. This largely is attributed to an uptick in mail order and online prescriptions and subsequent employment declines at retail pharmacies and drug stores.

However, opportunities will be better at clinics, hospitals, and other healthcare settings (including nursing and residential care facilities) where pharmacists will be needed "to oversee the medications given to patients and to provide patient care, doing tasks such as testing blood sugar or cholesterol," the DOL explains.

Senior citizens are expected to take an increasing number of prescription medications as a result of continuing medical advances and new drug research. Because of the growing complexity of prescription drugs, pharmacists will be needed to advise them on proper drug selections, medication usages, and dosages. Employment will also be strong for pharmacists in medical care establishments such as doctors' offices, outpatient care centers, hospitals, and home health care services.

Beyond drugstores, which continue to process the majority of prescriptions and offer patient care services such as vaccines, there are other avenues for geriatric pharmacists. These include working for pharmaceutical manufacturing companies, especially those that manufacture drugs designed to treat ailments that affect senior citizens. In such contexts, pharmacists can work in research and development, or even in the marketing and advertising of new drug products.