Pharmacy Technician

1. 2 Responses to “What all does a pharmacy technician do? Where is the best place to work for the best salary?”

2. By Jenifer on Feb 19, 2010 | Reply

   The best place to work is either a hospital or a privately owned pharmacy. CVS, Rite-Aid, etc. will all pay you very, very little in comparison. Besides, family-owned pharmacies are way nicer environments than the big chains.

   A pharmacy tech’s primary responsibility is to do what the pharmacist requests of them. This includes entering prescriptions and patient information into the computer, processing insurance claims, selecting the proper medication to be dispensed and counting out the right amount, ordering and restocking of Rx and OTC medications, as well as other things they assign.

   The biggest things to keep in mind if you want to be a pharmacy tech:
   1. DON’T believe everything people tell you. There are drug addicts, they will try to con you. If you don’t trust them, get the pharmacist and let them handle the problem.
   2. Look through the patient’s complete prescription history, and their allergy indications. While the pharmacist is the one held legally responsible, its your job to assist them, so if you see any possible medicine interactions or potential allergic reactions, you need to be mindful of them.
   3. Hospital pharmacy will require compounding and IV solutions, which is more math intensive.
   4. You’ll need to learn the brand vs generic pretty quick for your certification test. I had an advantage that I was already working there and using it in practice, but the test asks you probably about 30 different questions just on brand name vs generic name. And for good reason; people have been killed because the wrong medication was dispensed because someone behind the counter grabbed the wrong generic replacement for a brand, so you need to be very aware of what you’re getting off the shelf before you dispense it.
   5. The only other ‘hard’ part of the test (and it really wasn’t that hard) is the math sections, converting mm to teaspoons and things like that.

   Its a really fun job, I absolutely loved it and was heartbroken when the store closed in March. Good luck!

3. By porthuronbilliam on Feb 22, 2010 | Reply

   I guess the main thing pharm techs do is fill prescriptions. Besides working with pharmacists and other pharmacy staff, you most likely will be interacting with customers over the phone or in person when they come to drop off their prescriptions and come to pick up their orders.; don’t forget you may also be working the drive-thru window. You’ll need phone skills, computer skills to log in orders, customer service skills, some clerical skills, etc. As to the “best” place to work, that depends. Generally, working at a hospital pharmacy will pay the most versus working in a retail environment; as for retail pharmacies I would say a smaller, family-type pharmacy has different perks than a larger chain. There are other options like working for pharmacy catalogs, prisons, etc. as well. Most places have perks for continuing your education to maintain your certification/credentials and for further educational training if you which to train as a pharmacist. Good luck.

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