Pharmacists are health professionals who perform the art and science of pharmacy. In their conventional role, pharmacists characteristically take a request for medicines from a prescribing health care supplier in the form of a medical prescription and dispense the medication to the patient and counsel them on the proper use and unfavorable effects of that medication. In this role, pharmacists ensure the safe and efficient use of medications. Pharmacists also contribute in disease state management, where they optimize and monitor drug treatment - often in teamwork with physicians and/or other health professionals. Pharmacists have many areas of skill and are a critical source of medical information in clinics, hospitals, and community pharmacies all through the world.

Pharmacists are occasionally small-business owners, owning the pharmacy in which they perform. They are also very skilled and particular individuals with specific knowledge that makes them a vital division of any healthcare team. They act as an educated intermediary between patients and physicians to ensure that good medical therapy is chosen and implemented in the best way probable. Pharmacists are occasionally referred to as chemists (or dispensing chemists), which sometimes causes perplexity with scientists in the field of chemistry. This term is a historical one, since pharmacists initially were required to whole an undergraduate degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry (PhC) and were known as "Pharmaceutical Chemists".

The basic condition for pharmacists to be considered for registration is an undergraduate or postgraduate Pharmacy degree from a recognized university. In most countries this involves a four-year course to achieve a Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) degree. In order to practice as a pharmacist, the someone must be registered with the relevant statutory body, which governs the registration and practice of pharmacy within the territory of its jurisdiction. There is often an obligation for the pharmacy graduate to have completed a certain number of hours of knowledge in a pharmacy, under the management of a registered pharmacist. The statutory body will typically administer a written and oral examination to the potential pharmacist prior to registration.

Pharmacists are skilled in fields including pharmacology, chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmacy practice, pharmaceutics, pharmacy law, physiology, anatomy, biochemistry, kinetics, nephrology, hepatology, and compounding medications. Additional curriculum covers basic diagnosis with importance on disease state management, therapeutics and prescribing.