Top 12 Hospital Pharmacist Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the fast-spinning world of hospital care, pharmacists sit at the crossroads of safety, speed, and sound judgment. A sharp resume should show technical chops, calm collaboration, and patient-first thinking. That blend opens doors.
Hospital Pharmacist Skills
- Pyxis MedStation
- Epic Willow
- Pharmacokinetics
- Chemotherapy Preparation
- Aseptic Technique
- Medication Reconciliation
- Cerner Millennium
- Antimicrobial Stewardship
- Patient Counseling
- Drug Utilization Review
- IV Admixtures
- Clinical Pharmacology
1. Pyxis MedStation
Pyxis MedStation is an automated dispensing cabinet that secures, tracks, and issues medications at the point of care, tightening control and boosting accuracy while easing the load on pharmacy workflows.
Why It's Important
It reduces selection errors, speeds access to meds, and strengthens inventory and diversion controls—meaning safer patients and smoother operations.
How to Improve Pyxis MedStation Skills
To get more out of Pyxis MedStation:
Deep training: Offer initial and refresher sessions for pharmacists, nurses, and techs; include scenario-based practice.
Streamlined screens: Customize buttons, profiles, and workflows to match your most common orders and care areas.
Tight integration: Ensure clean interfaces with the EHR, pharmacy system, and BCMA so orders flow without rework.
Data use: Review usage logs, overrides, and discrepancies to fine-tune par levels and curb delays.
Upkeep: Apply software updates, audit access, and run routine cycle counts to keep accuracy high.
How to Display Pyxis MedStation Skills on Your Resume
2. Epic Willow
Epic Willow (Willow Inpatient/Ambulatory) is the pharmacy module within Epic that drives order verification, dispensing, clinical checks, and inventory across a health system.
Why It's Important
It centralizes orders, flags risks, and aligns pharmacy with the rest of the care team—less noise, safer care, cleaner records.
How to Improve Epic Willow Skills
To sharpen Willow proficiency:
Learn continuously: Explore new releases, tips, and build changes; schedule brief, recurring knowledge shares.
Smart configuration: Refine order sets, indications, and defaults; prune low-value alerts and tighten meaningful ones.
Efficiency tools: Use SmartPhrases, preference lists, and shortcuts to trim clicks and speed verification.
Partner with IT: Log pain points, test fixes in a non-prod environment, and roll out improvements with training.
Metrics: Track verify times, alert overrides, and intervention acceptance to guide tuning.
How to Display Epic Willow Skills on Your Resume
3. Pharmacokinetics
Pharmacokinetics looks at how the body handles a drug—absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion. It guides dose, interval, and route so exposure lands in the therapeutic sweet spot.
Why It's Important
It’s the backbone of precision dosing, trimming toxicity while preserving efficacy—especially for narrow-index drugs.
How to Improve Pharmacokinetics Skills
Build stronger PK practice:
Personalize: Dose by renal/hepatic function, weight, age, and comorbidities; adjust for critical illness and fluid shifts.
Hunt interactions: Screen for enzyme and transporter effects, food-timing pitfalls, and formulary substitutions.
TDM done right: Order levels at steady state or defined troughs/peaks; apply Bayesian or population models to refine doses.
Educate the team: Clarify timing of draws, infusion durations, and sampling windows to avoid misleading levels.
Use software: Employ dosing tools (e.g., Bayesian platforms) with local MICs and patient parameters for rapid adjustments.
Keep current: Review guidelines, new assays, and emerging PK/PD targets; discuss complex cases in rounds.
How to Display Pharmacokinetics Skills on Your Resume
4. Chemotherapy Preparation
Chemo prep means compounding cytotoxic and other hazardous meds in controlled sterile environments, with rock-solid technique and verification to protect patients and staff.
Why It's Important
Accuracy and sterility here aren’t optional—doses must be exact, exposures minimized, and errors intercepted before they reach the chair or the bedside.
How to Improve Chemotherapy Preparation Skills
Elevate safety and precision:
Codify SOPs: Maintain detailed procedures for receiving, storage, compounding, labeling, transport, and waste.
Use CSTDs: Employ closed-system transfer devices when appropriate to cut aerosolization and leaks.
Automate where it helps: Barcode verification, gravimetric checks, smart pumps, and, when validated, automated compounding.
Train and assess: Initial and routine competencies for garbing, aseptic tasks, hazardous handling, and spill response.
Quality layers: Independent double-checks, photo verification of key steps, and lot/batch documentation.
Meet standards: Align with USP <797> and USP <800> requirements, including engineering controls and PPE.
How to Display Chemotherapy Preparation Skills on Your Resume
5. Aseptic Technique
Aseptic technique keeps microbes out of sterile products through disciplined garbing, hand hygiene, critical site protection, and controlled environments.
Why It's Important
Contamination causes harm. Meticulous asepsis reduces infection risk and preserves product integrity.
How to Improve Aseptic Technique Skills
Raise the bar:
Training cadence: Frequent refresher courses and media-fill tests; coach on first-air principles and line-of-sight.
Environment: Maintain qualified cleanrooms and PECs; monitor air and surfaces on a defined schedule.
Technique audits: Observe, document, and correct work practices; use checklists and real-time feedback.
Tool control: Sterilize and rotate supplies properly; minimize clutter and disruptions in PECs.
Process validation: Media fills, fingertip sampling, and action plans when limits are exceeded.
How to Display Aseptic Technique Skills on Your Resume
6. Medication Reconciliation
Medication reconciliation captures a complete, accurate med list and carries it cleanly across admission, transfer, and discharge—preventing omissions, duplications, dosing slips, and clashes.
Why It's Important
Transitions are messy. Solid recon prevents avoidable harm and clarifies intent for every order.
How to Improve Medication Reconciliation Skills
Build a sturdier process:
Standardize: Use a single workflow and checklist across units; define roles for who collects, verifies, and documents.
Leverage tech: Pull from EHR, pharmacy fill history, and patient portals; use barcode tools to verify products when available.
Patient voice: Encourage patients or caregivers to carry an updated list; apply teach-back to confirm understanding.
High-risk focus: Prioritize anticoagulants, insulin, anticonvulsants, opioids, and transplants for pharmacist-led recon.
Quality loops: Audit recon accuracy, share misses, and harden the steps that fail most.
How to Display Medication Reconciliation Skills on Your Resume
7. Cerner Millennium
Cerner Millennium (now Oracle Health Millennium) is an EHR platform that links orders, pharmacy verification, dispensing, and documentation—tying the med-use process together.
Why It's Important
Integrated tools cut transcription, flag hazards, and smooth coordination across the care team, boosting safety and throughput.
How to Improve Cerner Millennium Skills
Make the system work harder for you:
Tailored order sets: Align with protocols, indications, and renal/hepatic dosing; prune outdated choices.
Decision support: Tune alerts for allergies, interactions, duplications, and max doses; reduce alert fatigue thoughtfully.
Recon toolkit: Embed streamlined medication reconciliation steps at each transition with clear ownership.
Training cycles: Offer role-specific refreshers when new features drop; keep quick-reference guides handy.
Feedback channels: Capture frontline issues, test fixes in a sandbox, and track impact post-go-live.
Hardware ties: Integrate ADCs and barcode scanning to prevent manual entry errors and speed verification.
How to Display Cerner Millennium Skills on Your Resume
8. Antimicrobial Stewardship
Antimicrobial stewardship steers the right drug, dose, duration, and route—aimed at curing infections while blunting resistance and collateral damage.
Why It's Important
Resistance rises when antibiotics are misused. Stewardship protects patients today and preserves options for tomorrow.
How to Improve Antimicrobial Stewardship Skills
Strengthen your program:
Education: Share bite-sized pearls on bug–drug pairs, IV-to-PO switches, and de-escalation triggers.
Local guidelines: Build facility-specific pathways using local antibiograms and formularies.
Prospective audit: Review targeted antibiotics and provide feedback; document interventions and results.
Teamwork: Partner with ID, microbiology, infection prevention, and nursing; meet regularly and act on data.
Leverage CDS: Use EHR prompts for duration defaults, renal dosing, and diagnostic stewardship nudges.
Track and report: Monitor days of therapy, resistance trends, C. difficile rates, and share dashboards with prescribers.
How to Display Antimicrobial Stewardship Skills on Your Resume
9. Patient Counseling
Patient counseling is the one-to-one conversation that turns a prescription into a plan—how to take it, what to avoid, what to expect, and when to call.
Why It's Important
Clear guidance lifts adherence, trims errors, and gives patients confidence in their therapy.
How to Improve Patient Counseling Skills
Make each minute count:
Know the meds: Keep current on indications, major risks, and high-yield talking points.
Listen first: Ask open questions; shape counseling to the patient’s concerns, language, and literacy.
Speak simply: Ditch jargon; use plain language and concrete examples.
Teach-back: Have patients restate the plan to confirm understanding and uncover gaps.
Leave-behinds: Provide concise written instructions and key warnings; include who to contact.
Follow-up: Arrange check-ins for complex regimens, new starts, or narrow-index drugs.
How to Display Patient Counseling Skills on Your Resume
10. Drug Utilization Review
Drug Utilization Review (DUR) examines whether medications are appropriate, safe, and effective for each patient—prospectively, concurrently, and retrospectively.
Why It's Important
DUR reduces adverse events, prevents waste, and aligns therapy with evidence and policy.
How to Improve Drug Utilization Review Skills
Sharpen DUR impact:
Real-time checks: Use clinical decision support to catch interactions, duplications, and allergy conflicts before verification.
EHR synergy: Pull labs, vitals, cultures, and notes into the medication review to add context.
CE and updates: Keep pace with new drugs, REMS programs, and guideline shifts; share quick updates with staff.
Collaborate: Huddle with prescribers and nurses to resolve issues quickly and agree on the plan.
MTM and reviews: Perform comprehensive med reviews for high-risk or high-cost patients to spot fixable problems.
QI projects: Track intervention outcomes and turn wins into standardized practice.
How to Display Drug Utilization Review Skills on Your Resume
11. IV Admixtures
IV admixtures are compounded sterile preparations crafted to precise concentrations and volumes, matched to patient needs and compatible with the route and diluent.
Why It's Important
Accuracy, sterility, and compatibility guard against harm and ensure therapy actually works as intended.
How to Improve IV Admixtures Skills
Lift quality and safety:
Standard work: Use validated recipes, compatibility charts, and independent checks.
Education: Provide routine CE and simulation for compounding, labeling, and beyond-use dating.
Tech assist: Barcode scanning, gravimetric verification, and, when validated, automated compounding devices.
QC program: Sterility/endotoxin testing when required, photo documentation, and lot traceability.
Aseptic mastery: Regular competencies and environmental monitoring aligned with USP <797>.
Continuous review: Trend deviations, near-misses, and recalls; update procedures accordingly.
How to Display IV Admixtures Skills on Your Resume
12. Clinical Pharmacology
Clinical pharmacology connects drug science to bedside care—mechanisms, interactions, PK/PD, and the practical choices that optimize therapy.
Why It's Important
It enables safer selections, sharper dosing, and timely monitoring, raising the odds of good outcomes.
How to Improve Clinical Pharmacology Skills
Level up your practice:
Structured learning: Pursue focused CE, board certification (e.g., BCPS), and journal clubs.
Decision support: Use CDS thoughtfully; validate rules against local practice and keep content fresh.
Be present on rounds: Offer dosing plans, monitoring parameters, and deprescribing opportunities in real time.
Research and QA: Contribute to protocols, publish small wins, or analyze outcomes that matter to your service lines.
Policy influence: Serve on P&T and safety committees to translate evidence into everyday workflows.
Patient education: Tie complex pharmacology to clear bedside instructions that patients can follow.
How to Display Clinical Pharmacology Skills on Your Resume
