Pharmacy Technician Prepare medications under the direction of a pharmacist. May measure, mix, count out, label, and record amounts and dosages of medications according to prescription orders.
Pharmacy Technician is Also Know as
In different settings, Pharmacy Technician is titled as
- Accredited Pharmacy Technician
- Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT)
- Chemotherapy Pharmacy Technician (Chemo Pharmacy Technician)
- Compounding Technician
- OR Pharmacy Tech (Operating Room Pharmacy Tech)
- RPhT (Registered Pharmacy Technician)
Education and Training of Pharmacy Technician
Pharmacy Technician is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Pharmacy Technician
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Pharmacy Technician
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Pharmacy Technician
- Bachelor in Pharmacy Technician/Assistant
- Associate Degree Courses in Pharmacy Technician/Assistant
- Masters Degree Courses in Pharmacy Technician/Assistant
Training Required for Pharmacy Technician
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Pharmacy Technician in different industries are
- Pharmacy Aides
- Medical Assistants
- Phlebotomists
- Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses
- Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians
- Veterinary Technologists and Technicians
- Medical Equipment Preparers
- Surgical Technologists
- Nursing Assistants
- Opticians, Dispensing
- Pharmacists
- Emergency Medicine Physicians
- Medical Records Specialists
- Cardiovascular Technologists and Technicians
- Emergency Medical Technicians
- Anesthesiologist Assistants
- Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists
- Surgical Assistants
- Ophthalmic Medical Technicians
- Dental Assistants
What Do Pharmacy Technician do?
- Receive written prescription or refill requests and verify that information is complete and accurate.
- Maintain proper storage and security conditions for drugs.
- Answer telephones, responding to questions or requests.
- Assist customers by answering simple questions, locating items, or referring them to the pharmacist for medication information.
- Price and file prescriptions that have been filled.
- Clean and help maintain equipment or work areas and sterilize glassware, according to prescribed methods.
- Establish or maintain patient profiles, including lists of medications taken by individual patients.
- Order, label, and count stock of medications, chemicals, or supplies and enter inventory data into computer.
- Transfer medication from vials to the appropriate number of sterile, disposable syringes, using aseptic techniques.
- Supply and monitor robotic machines that dispense medicine into containers and label the containers.
- Prepare and process medical insurance claim forms and records.
- Mix pharmaceutical preparations, according to written prescriptions.
- Operate cash registers to accept payment from customers.
- Compute charges for medication or equipment dispensed to hospital patients and enter data in computer.
- Deliver medications or pharmaceutical supplies to patients, nursing stations, or surgery.
- Price stock and mark items for sale.
- Maintain and merchandise home healthcare products or services.
- Prepack bulk medicines, fill bottles with prescribed medications, and type and affix labels.
- Receive and store incoming supplies, verify quantities against invoices, check for outdated medications in current inventory, and inform supervisors of stock needs and shortages.
- Restock intravenous (IV) supplies and add measured drugs or nutrients to IV solutions under sterile conditions to prepare IV packs for various uses, such as chemotherapy medication.
- Enter prescription information into computer databases.
Qualities of Good Pharmacy Technician
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
Tools Used by Pharmacy Technician
- Agar slides
- Autoclaves
- Automatic bottle filling machines
- Automatic unit dose strip packaging machines
- Benchtop colloid mills
- Blending/agitating machines
- Bunsen burners
- Cash registers
- Centrifuges
- Colloid mills
- Computer laser printers
- Computer-based dispensing equipment
- Data input scanners
- Desktop computers
- Double-beam balances
- Electronic signature capture equipment
- Equal-arm balances
- Evacuated blood collection containers
- Filtering devices
- Flask washers
- Graduated cylinders
- Grinding and shearing colloid mills
- Horizontal and vertical flow hoods
- Incubators
- Intravenous IV infusion pumps
- Intravenous IV supplies
- Label printers
- Laboratory vacuum pumps
- Laminar flow hoods
- Notebook computers
- Personal computers
- Petri dishes
- Point of sale POS computer terminals
- Robotic dispensing systems
- Semiautomatic sterile solution transferring devices
- Single-beam balances
- Specific gravity testing equipment
- Sterilizing equipment
- Syringes
- Tablet counting machines
- Test tubes
- Torsion balances
- Total parenteral nutrition TPN compounders
- Tube filling and crimping machines
- Unequal-arm balances
- Water distillation equipment
Technology Skills required for Pharmacy Technician
- Billing and reimbursement software
- Compounder software
- Database software
- Drug compatibility software
- Inventory management software
- Label-making software
- Medical condition coding software
- MEDITECH software
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- Patient record maintenance software
- Pharmaceutical software
- Pharmacy management software
- Point of sale POS software
- Prescription processing software
- Pyxis MedStation software