Pharmacist Interview Questions

Pharmacist Interview Questions:

Due to the oversupply of new graduates and the scarcity of competent professionals, finding pharmacists might be difficult. Therefore, these questions were developed to assist you in identifying high-quality candidates for this position. We understand that you require a candidate who can think clearly, empathize, and juggle various responsibilities efficiently. Additionally, it is also important for your candidates to have technical and money skills as they can take the role of technicians and cashiers along with their front line role of patient care.

The pharmacist position has a wide range of responsibilities that should not be underestimated.  A pharmacist with less expertise may not know how to work with an elderly patient who is taking several drugs prescribed by multiple physicians (with no one person to oversee the big picture). A pharmacist with less experience may be unable to detect drug-seeking behavior in patients. Additionally, a pharmacist with less expertise may not know how to inform patients on the ways they can manage their medications or how to communicate with them to convey difficult facts in an easy-to-understand manner to patients.

You could hire a candidate with fewer years of experience than what you originally intended, if they are passionate about the profession and interested in learning from a more experienced person from your company. However, it is very important and desirable to have hands-on experience in this position. In addition to that, it is important to hire a candidate who is able to communicate in a friendly manner with patients. Therefore, you could use the below questions to assess the hard and soft skills required for your vacant pharmacist position. 

Operational and Situational questions:

• How do you keep yourself updated with currently used pharmacy practices?
• What are the daily challenges that you encounter in your work responsibilities?
• Explain to us the different situations in which you would need to communicate with health insurance companies.
• What are the methods you follow to ensure that different combinations of medications are safe to be used with each other?
• What is a clinically significant drug interaction? Provide us with some examples.
• Tell us about a time you needed to employ your fact-finding skills to solve a problem you came across.
• Go through a time period where you offered help to a difficult patient. What was the issue? And what was the result?
• What are the perspectives you would take into consideration before dispensing prescription medication to patients?
• Tell us about your previous experience with immunizations.
• Describe an occasion when you helped a patient understand difficult medical terms.
• What methods have you used to teach patients how to manage their medications?
• How good are you at recognizing patients who are looking for drugs? How would you react if you come across future drug-seeking behaviour?
• Tell me about an instance when you went above and beyond to provide exceptional patient care.
• What would you do if you spotted a coworker who was found stealing?
• You’re ready to finish your shift when a coworker calls in ill. How would you respond?
• Consider an instance when you had a disagreement with a coworker. How did you come up with a solution?