At a Glance: Pharmacy Technicians

When you went to a pharmacy to fill a prescription not so long ago, you would have discovered that your prescription was completed by the pharmacist on duty most of the time. “A pharmacist is probably no longer filling your prescriptions.” This has been a trend in the pharmacy arena over the last several years. Despite the fact that pharmacists are present at all locations where pharmaceuticals are dispersed, pharmacy technicians and assistants now fill the majority of prescriptions.

Because they are paid less than a trained pharmacist, they contribute to lower health care expenses. The fact that it is logical is also a significant consideration. Because pharmacy technicians and assistants are educated to undertake basic tasks (such as filling prescriptions and providing customer service), pharmacists may devote more of their time to patient care and other supervisory responsibilities.

“Pharmacists are becoming more focused on patient care, so pharmacy technicians are required to handle more distribution duties,” says Melissa Murer, Executive Director of the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board.

In this short (but hopefully useful) essay, I will try to illustrate the variety of duties performed by pharmacy technicians and assistants.

It is common for them to help certified pharmacists by preparing and filing prescriptions as well as doing clerical duties. Pharmacy technicians have additional responsibilities than pharmacists.A pharmacist’s license is necessary for technicians and assistants, although the rules defining what “being supervised” means vary from state to state.

In addition to technicians and assistants, pharmacists must be the only ones to whom patients may turn for answers on drugs, health, or prescriptions.

Prescriptions are filled by technicians who adhere to strict protocols. Prescriptions and refill requests must be checked for accuracy before they can be counted or retrieved; they must also be weighed or measured, depending on what is needed for the prescription. The next step is to prepare the labels and apply them to the appropriate containers, as described before. The technician will then price and submit the prescription when it has been filled. As a technician, you’ll also be responsible for preparing insurance papers for patients and maintaining their records.

Pharmacists at retail pharmacies are also responsible for stocking and taking inventory of pharmaceuticals (prescription and OTC), maintaining equipment, and operating the till.

In many hospitals, technicians are in charge of reading physicians’ orders from a patient’s file, preparing the prescription, and then delivering it once a pharmacist has verified its safety and effectiveness. A patient’s medical data, including information about their prescriptions, may be entered, or a supply of medicine, including the labeling and packaging of each dosage, can be assembled for the patient. Each item is examined by the supervising pharmacist before being handed to a patient, and they also keep track of medication and other supplies, just like retail pharmacy technicians.

Pharmacy assistants do the same duties as pharmacy technicians, but the number of open jobs is usually lower than that of pharmacy technicians. Answering phones, handling cash, and doing administrative tasks are all part of the job description for pharmacy clerks. They may also help with deliveries and stocking stores in hospitals.

While working in clean, well-organized environments, pharmacy technicians and assistants spend much of their workday on their feet. In addition to the fact that many pharmacies are open 24 hours a day, technicians and assistants are regularly called upon to work strange hours because of this (nights, evenings and weekends). This means that part-time jobs at 24-hour pharmacies abound. Part-time employment is common among technicians and assistants who are pursuing a career in pharmacy as a secondary goal.

A one-to-one ratio of pharmacist to technician has generally been mandated by the states, but that is anticipated to change. The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy’s Director of Government and Student Affairs, Mark Boesen, has claimed that: “Some state pharmacy boards are permitting employers of technicians to increase the ratio of technicians to pharmacists in their workplaces.” Working in this area has a lot of promise. “

In response to the growing need for technicians with increased authority, several states have changed their one-to-one pharmacist-to-technician ratio to two or three technicians per pharmacist instead.

The need for pharmacy technicians to acquire and master new technologies is growing as they take on more and more responsibilities traditionally handled by pharmacists. Robotic dispensing equipment is an excellent illustration of this trend in pharmacies. In order to run the machine, technicians will need to keep an eye on the bins and identify the containers.