What is the workload like for a pharmacist compared to other health professions, such as podiatrists, dentists, etc.?
What do you mean by workload? Are you referring to rigors of school? Are you referring to the job itself? Unless anyone has gone through both programs and has both licenses, you're not going to know. The best you can do is shadow each profession, or work as a technician.
What is the level of knowledge that you must maintain in order to be a competent pharmacist compared to other health professions?
Very difficult to answer when you are comparing a dentist (teeth), podiatrist (feet), and pharmacist (general-drugs). You go to pharmacy school to have 8 semesters of pharmacology. I have zero knowledge of diagnosing anything involving the teeth or feet. I also have zero knowledge/experience in doing any general surgery/procedures.
Pharmacy deals with pharmacology/drug kinetics/interactions. A drug expert.
How about the difficulty of the day-to-day job compared to other health professions?
Difficulty in what way? Staying late? Having to read up on the most updated guidelines/literature studies to support use of specific agents? Being hands on? Being hands off? Doing charting or phone calling? Verifying scripts and hoping you didn't miss a small detail that could cost you your license?
You cannot compare this between different careers....difficulty is subjective.
Do you carry less risk of being sued since you are not directly operating on patients?
Pharmacy's are being sued constantly based on drug orders/scripts. The other aspect is double checking simple drug conversions are done correctly in a fast-pace environment (switching between drug agents, doing weight-based calculations dealing with pediatric, chemo, or antibiotics).
Pharmacists rarely touch patients and never operate, so I would imagine that a botched procedure is more individualized and could come at a great price of losing a license compared to the rest of the individuals operating at a specific podiatry or dental clinic (who knows...I don't deal/see patients in those settings).
I have read that you don't take your work home with you unlike other professions, can someone expand on this please?
How do any of your listed professions take their work home? Patient charting? Being on a committee and doing 1 or 2 presentations a quarter? Studying updated guidelines once in a blue moon? Do consults remotely? I would imagine for most it's a matter of deciding to stay late, or come in early the next day and try to catch up on daily tasks (like any profession).
I have tried to do my own research and I could not come up with what pharmacists do other than count pills and make phone calls. Obviously I am wrong and do not know the full picture, so I would love for someone to educate me. I am in no way disparaging the pharmacy profession.
Trying not to come off as harsh, but if you're going to make a career decision, and you do not understand the basics of what a specific profession does, you need to take a step back and do what most would recommend you do (research and shadow). If you are finding it difficult to learn how to look up the role of a pharmacist (retail vs hospital), you will struggle in any of these professions as they would expect you to know how to perform basic research/investigation skills during your schooling.
