Pharmacy Aide Record drugs delivered to the pharmacy, store incoming merchandise, and inform the supervisor of stock needs. May operate cash register and accept prescriptions for filling.
Pharmacy Aide is Also Know as
In different settings, Pharmacy Aide is titled as
- Certified Pharmacist Assistant
- Drug Purchaser
- Front Counter Clerk
- Pharmacist Assistant
- Pharmacy Aide
- Pharmacy Ancillary
- Pharmacy Assistant
- Pharmacy Cashier
- Pharmacy Clerk
Education and Training of Pharmacy Aide
Pharmacy Aide is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Pharmacy Aide
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
Education Required for Pharmacy Aide
These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
Degrees Related to Pharmacy Aide
Training Required for Pharmacy Aide
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Pharmacy Aide in different industries are
- Pharmacy Technicians
- Medical Assistants
- Opticians, Dispensing
- Phlebotomists
- Medical Equipment Preparers
- Stockers and Order Fillers
- Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
- Cashiers
- Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers
- Receptionists and Information Clerks
- Pharmacists
- Emergency Medicine Physicians
- Nursing Assistants
- Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses
- Emergency Medical Technicians
- Medical Records Specialists
- Veterinary Technologists and Technicians
- Dental Assistants
- Orderlies
- Physical Therapist Aides
What Do Pharmacy Aide do?
- Accept prescriptions for filling, gathering and processing necessary information.
- Answer telephone inquiries, referring callers to pharmacist when necessary.
- Greet customers and help them locate merchandise.
- Unpack, sort, count, and label incoming merchandise, including items requiring special handling or refrigeration.
- Prepare prescription labels by typing or operating a computer and printer.
- Operate cash register to process cash or credit sales.
- Restock storage areas, replenishing items on shelves.
- Perform clerical tasks, such as filing, compiling and maintaining prescription records, or composing letters.
- Maintain and clean equipment, work areas, or shelves.
- Prepare, maintain, and record records of inventories, receipts, purchases, or deliveries, using a variety of computer screen formats.
- Process medical insurance claims, posting bill amounts and calculating copayments.
- Compound, package, and label pharmaceutical products, under direction of pharmacist.
- Operate capsule or tablet counting machine that automatically distributes a certain number of capsules or tablets into smaller containers.
- Calculate anticipated drug usage for a prescribed period.
- Deliver medication to treatment areas, living units, residences, or clinics, using various means of transportation.
- Receive, store, and inventory pharmaceutical supplies or medications, check for out-of-date medications, and notify pharmacist when inventory levels are low.
- Provide customers with information about the uses, effects, or interactions of drugs.
Qualities of Good Pharmacy Aide
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- 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).
- 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.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- 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.
- 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.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- 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.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- 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).
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- 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.
- 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.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- 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.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- 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.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and 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.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
Tools Used by Pharmacy Aide
- Automatic unit dose strip packaging machines
- Capsule counting machines
- Cash registers
- Credit card processing machines
- Desktop computers
- HEPA filtered biosafety cabinets
- Label printing machines
- Laboratory blending or mixing equipment
- Laminar flow hoods
- Laser printers
- Liquid dose packaging machines
- Multi-line telephone systems
- Personal computers
- Solid unit dose packaging machines
- Tablet counting machines
Technology Skills required for Pharmacy Aide
- Database software
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Windows
- Microsoft Word
- Spreadsheet software
- Word processing software