Pharmacy Technician
Working under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist, a pharmacy technician handles various pharmacy-related tasks, foremost of which is providing medication and other health care products to patients and drug store customers. They always consult the pharmacist on matters concerning prescriptions, drug information, and other health issues.
Pharmacy technician jobs are available in various practice settings, including community or retail pharmacies, hospitals, the military, in-home health care services, long term care facilities, mail service pharmacies, managed health care organizations, insurance companies, and educational programs.
The work area of a pharmacy technician is generally viewed as clean, orderly, properly lit, and well ventilated. Technicians spend most of their working hours standing and serving pharmacy clients and hospital patients. They are usually required to work at night, on weekends and even during holidays. Those assigned in 24/7 hospital and retail pharmacies may serve on different shifts.
Duties and Responsibilities of a Pharmacy Technician
With adequate pharmacy technician training, a certified pharmacy technician is authorized to prepare prescribed medication and provide medicines to patients. It is also the technician’s duty to check all medications before dispensing them to patients and to instruct patients on how to take such prescribed drugs.
The pharmacy technician job description includes such tasks as receiving written prescription or refilling requests, and ensuring the completeness and accuracy of prescription and other drug-related information. Technicians also create and maintain patient records and profiles, which indicate medications taken by individual patients.
A pharmacy technician is in charge of properly storing and securing drugs and other health products, answering and attending to telephone inquiries and requests, answering customers’ basic questions, helping them find specific items, and referring them to the pharmacist for more complex medication issues or concerns.
Pharmacy technicians put prescribed medicines into appropriately labeled bottles or containers and file prescriptions that have been served. Also on their to-do list are cleaning and maintenance of equipment and work areas, including sterilization of glassware.
A pharmacy technician handles merchandising or inventory management functions, including ordering, labeling and assessment of stocks of drugs, chemicals, and other medical supplies, and thereafter encoding inventory data into a computerized system. Also part of the job are receiving and storing delivered medications and supplies, making sure the quantities delivered correspond with the invoices, and notifying pharmacy managers of stock requirements and shortages.
Pharmacy technicians are trained to properly handle various types of drugs, specifically in the use of aseptic methods to transfer medicines from vials to the correct number of sterile, disposable syringes. They are also adept at mixing pharmaceutical preparations based on written prescriptions. Under the guidance of a pharmacist, they can prepare intravenous (IV) packs and accurately and safely add drugs or nutrients to such IV solutions. They are capable of operating and monitoring robotic machines programmed to put medicines into containers and label such containers.
Education, Compensation and Employment Outlook
Although a college degree is not mandatory in this profession, most aspirants undergo training in pharmacy technician schools, specifically technical and community colleges. The military, some hospitals, proprietary schools, and online or distant learning schools also provide the necessary training.
In May 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) pegged the mean annual pharmacy technician salary at $29,330 and the mean hourly pharmacy technician pay at $14.10.
BLS projects employment of pharmacy technicians to grow by 25 percent from 2008 to 2018. Pharmacy technician job opportunities will be widely available, particularly to those armed with previous experience, formal training, or certification.
Pharmacy Technician
Categories : Uncategorized ,