Pharmacy Technician Schools: What's the Best Place for You?

The primary responsibility of a pharmacy technician is to help licensed pharmacists complete prescription requests that come from hospitals, doctors, nurses, and patients themselves. This task includes retrieving prescription orders, counting, measuring, weighing, and pouring medications, mixing medications, selecting suitable prescription containers, and creating recipe labels. Subsequently, a licensed pharmacist reviews the entire prescription before it is given to the patient.

In addition to completing prescriptions, the technician assists in the daily operations of the pharmacy and performs non-drug related functions, such as preparing insurance claim forms, maintaining files, attending cash register transactions, taking inventory of counter medications, and answering calls .

Pharmacy technicians must have adequate training for the job. Aspiring technicians must enroll in and complete pharmacy technician training courses. There are schools that offer associate level degrees; Others offer certificates and diplomas for graduates who wish to be employed as technicians. The best training opportunity they can get comes from on-the-job training in pharmacies or within the pharmaceutical industry.

There are training sessions that prepare students for certification as pharmacy technicians. These are available at pharmacy schools, community colleges, university colleges, and hospital and pharmacy associations. Sessions consist of classroom and laboratory classes and may include an internship period where students learn the techniques and practical skills associated with the job. They can also study online through a variety of online course training programs. At the end of the training, students receive a Diploma, Certificate or Associate Degree, and are also entitled to take the National Pharmacy Certification Exam.

Formal pharmacy technician education programs require classroom and laboratory work in the areas of medical and pharmaceutical terminology, pharmaceutical calculations, pharmacy record keeping, pharmaceutical techniques, and French pharmacy us law and ethics. Aspiring technicians must know the names of the medications and their actions, uses and doses.

Pharmacy technical certificate programs provide the basic skills necessary for the job and generally take less than a year to complete. The only requirement is a high school diploma. Primary technician diploma programs are longer and are designed to increase the accumulated knowledge gained from the initial certification and prepare graduates for the certification exams. A pharmacy technician associate degree program takes around two years to complete and provides a broader scope of training in the medical fields, as well as focused pharmacy practice training.

Pharmacy technicians are not limited to pharmacies; They can also be found in hospitals, medical stores, health and personal care stores, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities. This is a profession that is best suited for entrepreneurs, for people who are easily motivated and science and math oriented. It's also a job that requires people skills because in the retail pharmacy, people in the business talk to customers all day. Also, since this is a job in the healthcare area, the pharmacy technician must be willing to work flexible hours including holidays and rest days.

There is opportunity for growth in this type of career. Until 2008, 50 pharmacy training schools have been included; The number grows as employment opportunities remain very strong. People will always need medical attention and attention; therefore, there will always be a strong demand for any role played in the hospital setting, eg. laboratory technician, nurse, surgeon. The wealth of opportunities is there; go after it.