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Becoming A Pharmacy Technician
As a result of the ongoing pharmacist shortage, the need for pharmacists has never been greater, and many pharmacies are stretched thin as they try to fill customer orders, bill insurance companies and perform the day to day tasks associated with running a profitable and successful drug store.
If you enjoy working with people, have good communication and math skills, are able to pay close attention to detail, and are interested in a recession proof career as a valued member of the healthcare team in a booming industry that offers lots of opportunities for advancement, then becoming a Pharmacy Technician might be just the prescription for your success!
What Do Pharmacy Technicians Do?
Pharmacy technicians do far more than just put pills in bottles and labels on prescriptions. Indeed pharmacy technicians also work behind the scenes to make sure customer records are updated and insurance companies are billed properly. These professional staff members also submit multiple billings – to both private insurers and public agencies, in order to ensure that all responsible parties are billed properly. This helps to keep the customer’s cost low and also helps to ensure that the pharmacy is following all applicable state and federal regulations.
Pharmacy Technicians are multi-skilled practitioners who work under the supervision of a Pharmacist performing pharmaceutical calculations, packaging, and preparing medications, and other duties. Duties in a retail pharmacy include inventory control, filling prescriptions on the computer, counting and packaging. Pharmacy technicians also do third party billing. pharmacy technicians receive prescriptions from a prescriber and verify the patient’s information on the prescription for clarity and accuracy. They prepare the medication needed to fill the prescription by retrieving it, counting, pouring, weighing, measuring and sometimes mixing the medications. Before the prescription is given to the patient, a pharmacist checks it.
Pharmacy technicians in a hospital or clinic setting assist pharmacists, calculate dosage, prepare and label pills, ointments, and intravenous solutions, and document in the patient`s records. In the pharmaceutical industry, the pharmacy technician`s role is to assist research pharmacists who are working on projects to develop new drugs or improve existing ones. As cost-conscious insurancy companies begin to increasingly use pharmacies as patient-care centers, the role of pharmacy technicians will continue to expand as they assume more responsibility for some of the tasks previously performed only by Pharmacists.
General Requirements of Pharmacy Technicians
Pharmacy technicians should possess excellent people skills, communication, customer service skill, along with good abilities in reading, math, and chemistry. Students will study basic pharmacy terminology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, dosage calculations, interpretation of prescriptions, drug classifications, inventory, billing, and customer service care. Additional Pharmacy Technology studies include
Anatomy and Physiology
Basic Pharmacology (Familiarization with drug classifications, interactions, herbal remedies and dietary supplements)
Introduction to Federal and State Pharmacy laws
Training in understanding prescriptions, processing drug orders, drug calculations, dosage, inventory etc
Pharmacy Technician Education
Certificate programs in Pharmacy Technology are generally offered by Career Colleges, and can be completed in a year or less. Associate Degrees in Pharmacy Technology take approximately two years, and Bachelor`s in Pharmacy Technology degree programs take four years. Those interested in greater career opportunities, job options, and the ability to further their education at a later time should strongly consider earning a degree in Pharmacy Technology.
Advancement Opportunities for Pharmacy Technicians
Working as a pharmacy technician is a great place to start if you are interested in having a career in the pharmaceutical industry. In addition to advancement into supervisory positions, experienced pharmacy technicians might put their knowledge to use in a variety of challenging and rewarding jobs such as pharmaceutical sales, pharmaceutical research, in poison control, mentoring and training new pharmacy technicians, and, with the right educational qualifications they can go on to teaching pharmacy technology at the community college level or beyond.
While many pharmacy technicians go on for advanced education in order to become licensed pharmacists, others might choose to advance into specialty positions such as chemo therapy technician and nuclear pharmacy technician. Starting as a pharmacy technician gives you the type of background training that would be necessary to become a pharmacist or enjoy an ever expanding choice of career opportunities elsewhere in the pharmaceutical industry.
Pharmacy Technicians can readily find work in a variety of health care settings including retail pharmacies, clinics, laboratories, hospitals, public health clinics, and pharmaceutical companies. Pharmacy Technicians enjoy rewarding salaries, pleasant work environments, and flexible Hours, in a recession proof job.
As you can see the job of the pharmacy technician is a very important one, and one that is likely to be in high demand for quite some time. In fact, career opportunities for pharmacy technicians are expected to grow by an impressive 32 percent through 2016, and with competitive hourly wages of $17.65 or more for pharmacy technician school graduates, becoming a pharmacy technician might be the prescription for career success that you`ve been looking for.
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