A Close Look At A Pharmacy Technician Career
The pharmacy technician career is an exciting career. As a technician, the person works shoulder to shoulder with a licensed pharmacist. Approximately 71 percent of the pharmacy technicians work in places such as department stores, retail pharmacies, mass retailers and grocery stores.
Let’s take a look at some of the things a pharmacy technician can do. Their actual jobs vary according to their workplace. However, their basic job is to take care of the medication and health care needs of patients under the watchful eye of a licensed pharmacist.
You can help the pharmacist fill prescriptions that doctors have ordered. This may include labeling bottles, counting pills or mixing medicine. You might also do things such as attend the cash register, answer the phone or stock shelves.
If you should choose to work in a mail order or retail pharmacy, your job would include other responsibilities. You would receive first time prescriptions or refills doctors have ordered directly from the patients or electronically from the doctor’s office.
In the retail or mail order world, their first responsibility is to read the prescription, verify it and make sure it is accurate and complete. They help in the preparation by doing whatever is necessary to fill the prescription. This could include, counting, weighing, measuring or mixing a medication. Once it is prepared, it must be labeled, priced and filed, in order to be ready for the patient. They can, also, work with insurance claim forms and inventory.
Pharmacy technicians always work in a nice type of environment. They spend most of the day on their feet, doing whatever is necessary to help the pharmacist. It may be necessary for them to climb ladders to get things off of a high shelf, or they may have to lift heavy boxes.
Your schedule, as a pharmacy technician, can be quite variable and will mainly depend on the type of establishment you work for. You could be asked to work days, evenings, nights, weekends or holidays. This is especially true if you work in a place that is open 24 hours. As with any job, you will have more control over your hours, the more time you work in a place. There is also part time work available in retail or hospitals.
What many people like is that you don’t even have to go to college to become a pharmacy technician. You will be trained by the head pharmacist right at the place. Some states require certification, which, in turn, requires you to take a two and a half month course to help you prepare for the exam.
In order to become a pharmacy technician, you need to enjoy mathematics, be able to follow orders and have a love for people. In the first 10 years, salaries average between $25,000 and $35,000 a year. There are always job openings in the pharmacy technician career.
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