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What does a person who works in a pharmacy do?
A pharmacy technician works closely with a pharmacist to make sure that their patients are healthy and safe. They find, give out, pack, and label a patient’s prescribed medication. A pharmacist then checks the medication for accuracy before giving it to the patient. They might also help pharmacists with things like filing paperwork, processing insurance claims and keeping track of stock.
What can be done?
Pharmacy technicians help doctors, nurses, and pharmacists do their jobs. They do a lot of different things in the pharmacy.
Some common jobs and tasks are:
- Putting together new prescriptions and requests for refills for patients
- giving patients their medicine according to the prescription or the provider’s orders.
- Putting together and labeling a prescription drug
- Taking care of insurance claims
- Keeping track of stock
- Using sterile and non-sterile methods to make compounded medicines
- Putting things in automatic dispensers
- Repackaging of large quantities of drugs
Specializations
Like pharmacists, pharmacy technicians can work in a specialty industry like academia, community, or government, or in a specialty area like critical care, oncology, or pediatrics.
Work environment
Pharmacy technicians usually work in stores, hospitals, nursing homes, and places for the elderly and disabled. They spend most of their workday on their feet, filling and packaging prescriptions and working with pharmacists and other health care providers. Depending on where they work, they may have to work nights, weekends, and holidays.
How to become a pharmacy technician
Pharmacy technicians are an important part of the healthcare team because they connect patients and pharmacists. If you like helping people and talking to patients but don’t want to do clinical work, becoming a pharmacy technician may be a good choice for you. It’s one of the few jobs in health care that involves working with patients without doing procedures or taking care of them directly. If you want to go into this field, you should take science classes in high schools like chemistry, biology, and medical terminology.
Needs for higher education
All pharmacy technicians need to have at least a high school diploma or the equivalent and train on the job, but many choose to get a certificate or an associate’s degree after high school. Getting a certification after completing specialized training is helpful in many ways.
A certificate program could be done online and could take as little as nine months to finish. By finishing this kind of program, students will be better prepared for the Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam (PTCE). There are also certificate programs that have a part where students learn by doing things in a real pharmacy.
A program for an associate’s degree usually takes about 2 years to finish, and it usually includes internship or externship experiences. Most of the time, students take PTCE after their externship.
Certification Process
Certification is a way for non-government groups or organizations to give people who have met certain requirements the recognition that they are competent. Certification gives pharmacy technicians a professional credential and may be required of some pharmacy technicians, depending on where they work.
The requirements for pharmacy technicians vary from one state to the next. Some states don’t require certification. Instead, exams, continuing education, and background checks are used to keep things in order. In other states, pharmacy technicians do need to pass the PTCE and get a license.
After passing the PTCE exam, a pharmacy technician can work as a certified pharmacy technician (CPHT).
Career options and the future
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the median salary for a pharmacy technician is $36,740 per year.
There are a lot of jobs out there for pharmacy technicians. Some pharmacy technicians go on to become managers of retail pharmacies, pharmaceutical representatives, or even pharmacists after getting more training, education, and experience.
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