Unit Group

3131 Pharmacists
Community pharmacists and hospital pharmacists compound
and dispense prescribed pharmaceuticals and provide
consultative services to both clients and health care providers.
They are employed in community and hospital pharmacies, or
they may be self-employed. Industrial pharmacists participate
in the research, development, promotion and manufacture of
pharmaceutical products. They are employed in
pharmaceutical companies and government departments and
agencies.

Example Titles
clinical pharmacist
community pharmacist
druggist
hospital pharmacist
industrial pharmacist
pharmacist
retail pharmacist

View all titles

Main duties
Community pharmacists and hospital pharmacists perform
some or all of the following duties:

• Check prescriptions for proper dosage

• Compound prescribed pharmaceutical products
by calculating, measuring and mixing the quantities of
drugs and other ingredients required and filling
appropriate containers with correct quantity
• Dispense prescribed pharmaceuticals to
customers or to other health care professionals and
advise them on indications, contra-indications, adverse
effects, drug interactions and dosage
• Maintain medication profiles of customers
including registry of poisons and narcotic and
controlled drugs
• Ensure proper preparation, packaging,
distribution and storage of vaccines, serums,
biologicals and other drugs and pharmaceuticals
• Order and maintain stock of pharmaceutical
supplies
• Advise customers on selection and use of non-
prescription medication
• May supervise and co-ordinate the activities of
other pharmacists, pharmacy assistants, pharmacy
technicians and other staff.

Industrial pharmacists perform some or all of the following

duties:
 • Participate in basic research for the development
of new drugs
• Formulate new drug products developed by
medical researchers
• Test new drug products for stability and to
determine their absorption and elimination patterns
• Co-ordinate clinical investigations of new drugs
• Control the quality of drug products during
production to ensure that they meet standards of
potency, purity, uniformity, stability and safety
• Develop information materials concerning the
uses, properties and risks of particular drugs
• Evaluate labelling, packaging and advertising of
drug products
• Promote pharmaceutical products to health
professionals.

Employment requirements

• A bachelor of science degree in pharmacy is

required.

• Pharmacists also require practical training under

the supervision of a pharmacist.

• Licensure is required in all provinces and

territories for community and hospital pharmacists.

Classified elsewhere

• Chemists (2112)
• Chiefs of pharmacy (in 0311 Managers in Health
Care )
• Pharmaceutical sales representatives (in 6221
Technical Sales Specialists - Wholesale Trade )
• Pharmacologists (in 2121 Biologists and Related
Scientists )
• Pharmacy and drugstore managers (in 0621
Retail Trade Managers )
• Pharmacy assistants (in 3414 Other Assisting
Occupations in Support of Health Services )
• Pharmacy director (in 0311 Managers in Health
Care
http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/work
placeskills/foreign_workers/lcpdir
/lcpone.shtml

Temporary Foreign Worker

Program

Live-in Caregiver Program

Employing foreign live-in caregivers when Canadian workers or
permanent residents are not available, can help families care
for children, the elderly or persons with disabilities.
Employers who want to hire live-in caregivers must apply to
Human Resources and Skills Development Canada/Service
Canada for a labour market opinion. A Labour Market Opinion
assesses what impact hiring a foreign worker would have on
Canada's labour market.
A foreign live-in caregiver who wants to work in Canada must
have received a job offer from a Canadian employer and apply
to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) for a work
permit. The caregiver's application must include proof that the
employer received a positive Labour Market Opinion from
Service Canada.
Effective April 1, 2010, live-in caregivers working in Canada
under the Live-in Caregiver Program:

• have up to four years from the date of their

arrival in Canada to complete the employment
requirement to be eligible for permanent residence
under the live-in caregiver class; and
• may choose between two options for calculating
their employment requirement for permanent
residence:
o 24 months of authorized full-time
employment, or
o 3,900 hours (within a minimum of 22
months which may include a maximum of 390
hours of overtime) of authorized full-time
employment.

It is important that you, the employer, read the

following pages which describe the conditions you must
meet to hire a live-in caregiver and how to complete
your application form. Applications that are completed
incorrectly or do not include all the documents required
will delay processing times.
You must agree to the following conditions if you want to hire
a live-in caregiver.
The live-in caregiver must:

• Work for you in a private home

 • Live with you, the employer, or in the household
where care is to be provided
• Have a private, furnished room within your
home
• Be employed on a full-time basis
• Meet the requirements set by Citizenship and
Immigration Canada for the Live-in Caregiver Program

You, the employer, must:

• Pay for the caregiver’s health insurance at no

cost to the caregiver until he/she becomes eligible for
provincial health insurance.
• Enrol the live-in caregiver in provincial
workplace safety insurance (also known as workers’
compensation) or equivalent insurance if the former is
not available.
• Pay for the services, fees and costs of a
recruitment or third party agency if you are using one
for recruiting the caregiver. Employers are not
permitted to recoup recruitment fees from live-in
caregivers.
• Pay for transportation costs for the caregiver to
travel from the caregiver’s country of permanent
residence to the location of work in Canada (where
caregiving will take place). Or if the caregiver is
already in Canada, the employer must pay the
transportation costs for the caregiver to travel to the
new place of work in Canada.
• Submit to HRSDC/Service Canada
an employment contract with the Labour Market
Opinion application to hire a foreign live-in caregiver.
The employment contract must include the duration of
the contract, duties of the position, wages, hours of
work (including overtime, holidays, and sick leave),
accommodation arrangements, as per provincial and
municipal standards; transportation costs; health
insurance; terms of resignation and termination; and
registration for provincial workplace safety insurance.

You the employer must also:

• Keep records of the number of regular and

overtime hours the live-in caregiver has worked for
you on a weekly/monthly basis. The caregiver will need
this information for their application for permanent
residence.
• Review and adjust the foreign caregiver's wages
to ensure they meet or exceed HRSDC's requirements
(as per HRSDC's Wages table).
• Ensure that you are not employing a foreign
national other than in a capacity they are authorized to
work (you should ask to see, but not keep, their work
permit to ensure that you are identified as the
authorized employer and to confirm the duration of
that authorization). Remember, you are not permitted
to take away the work permit from the caregiver or
keep it.
 • Ensure that you are not employing a live-in
caregiver without a valid work permit identifying you
specifically as the employer.

If you, the employer, agree to all the conditions mentioned

above, you can apply to Service Canada for a labour market
opinion. The opinion will assess the impact hiring the live-in
caregiver would have on Canadian jobs.
While authorized to work for a specific employer, a live-in
caregiver cannot:

• Work for more than one employer at a time or

for any employer or under any conditions other than
that authorized on their work permit; and
• Work for a health agency or labour contractor,
or in day care or foster care.

Some countries may require that their citizens meet

certain conditions if they want to work in Canada as
live-in caregivers (e.g. approval to leave the country,
employer to pay transportation costs and/or health
coverage). Ask your live-in caregiver to verify if
additional conditions apply in his/her country, contact
the country's consulate in Canada or check its website
to find out if you must meet additional requirements.