Community Pharmacy Assistants provide customer service and retail sales skills in Pharmacies, and sometimes dispense medicines. They will complete tasks including:

• Stocking shelves
• Checking out items for purchase
• Controlling and ordering inventory
• Selling beauty and toiletry items
• Helping to dispense medicines
• Providing basic advice about health and medicines to customers.

You will work in a community (retail) pharmacy. While Pharmacy Assistants also work in hospitals, Community Pharmacy Assistants require more customer service skills, and will deal more with general health issues seen in the community.

You will need to enjoy working with a broad range of people, as Community Pharmacy Assistants sell products and provide advice to a broad range of people. You will need to develop a general knowledge of health conditions and medications, so literacy and numeracy skills are important.

There is an age requirement to work in a pharmacy – The Queensland Health (Drugs and Poisons) Regulation 1996 stipulates that pharmacy assistant employees must be 16 years of age or more to be authorised to sell Pharmacy Only medicines.