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What do I need to know about being a pharmacy tech?

I'mma study Pharmacy tech, but I'm not sure what is it about. Explain what I need to know and do.

pharmacy pharmacist
Thank you comment icon In Texas, I started off as a pharmacy tech trainee which allowed me to be in the pharmacy without being fully certified and this allowed me to get more of an idea of what it takes to be a pharmacy tech and they help with my studying for the exam. Aj
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Lawrence’s Answer

As previously mentioned above, the first step is obtaining a technician trainee licensee from the Board of Pharmacy. Apply to a local chain pharmacy. During your time, start learning your top 200 drugs. The test will cover Pharmacology for technicians, Pharmacy law and regulations, sterile and non-sterile compounding, Medication safety, Pharmacy quality assurance, medication order entry and fill process, pharmacy inventory management, and Pharmacy billing.
Good luck!
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Jerel’s Answer

Hi Edwin and thank you for your question. I worked as a pharmacy technician while I was in college, so I wanted to take a moment to give you some additional context about the role. As a pharmacy technician, you work closely with a pharmacist to help ensure that patients have the medications that they need. Pharmacy technicians also work with other doctors and nurses and perform a wide range of tasks. In this role, you locate, dispense, pack, and label a prescribed medication for a patient which is then reviewed for accuracy by a pharmacist before being dispensed to the patient. Pharmacy technicians typically work in retail stores, like CVS or Walgreens, hospitals, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities. All pharmacy technicians need at least a high school degree or equivalent and will be provided with on-the-job training. Some pharmacy technician positions require you to be certified while others do not. Having a pharmacy technician certification means that you have passed the certification test given by the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) and you have the basic knowledge to begin working as a pharmacy technician. I’ve included some helpful links to resource for you to check out. I hope this helps. Good luck!

https://www.ashp.org/pharmacy-technician/about-pharmacy-technicians/pharmacy-technician-career-overview?loginreturnUrl=SSOCheckOnly#

https://www.ptcb.org/credentials/certified-pharmacy-technician#overview
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Jane’s Answer

As a pharmacy technician, you essentially do what it takes to support the pharmacist. Before you get your license, you'll be considered a pharmacy clerk and will likely be doing a lot of cashier transactions, picking up phone calls for customer questions, typing up prescriptions (and making sure those prescriptions are written correctly), sorting and responding to online faxes, verifying insurances for injections and medications, sorting the correct inventory, and answering patient questions about the store. For your license, the main thing your license is for is basically being able to handle the medications. It means you can fill prescriptions and check that the stock count of pills is correct.

Most of the time, everything is computer based, so if you forget, you can always check what a medication's generic or brand name is and what the medication does on your computer screen, but it is more convenient to have those memorized. I'd say just have the top 200 drugs generic and brand names memorized as well as their purposes and the common vaccinations (at what age do you get them, what are they for, how many months apart do you take the doses if its a multidose vaccine, and so on). You should also memorize what should be on a prescription (especially what's require for a class II narcotic drug prescription), whether you can take a prescription over the phone or not, depending on the drug class, and the red flags for when a prescription may be forged. Otherwise, all the systems at different drug store brands are different, so that's something you'll always have to learn again. Your pharmacist should be a lot of help to you to remind you about medication usage/laws, but laws always change every year as does people's insurances, so those are kind of learn as you go.

I worked as a pharmacy tech in my last job, and in California, to get your license, I believe you either need 240 hours of work in a pharmacy or to go to a certified pharm tech school. The one thing I might say is that you don't really need to study to get a job as a pharmacy clerk, or at least, I didn't. Right now, a lot of places are understaffed, and they do need people. I got a job at CVS through a friend, and even if I know you're technically not supposed to do this kind of thing, I would suggest just going to any busy drugstore and asking to talk to the manager to give them your resume and let them know you're interested. I didn't have any experience, but I got hired just like that. Then, you can make money while working towards your license, which is always nice.

If you want a slower store (because some CVS's are very busy and it's difficult to learn), try the CVS target stores. Otherwise, keep in mind that you'll be on your feet all day, and it can get a bit stressful, but don't let it get to you!

Good luck, hope everything goes well!
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Andrew’s Answer

I had a couple of friends go through becoming a pharmacy tech, and the consensus is that you need a certification. I'm not sure if it varies from state to state, but typically having a certificate will be beneficial in becoming a tech. There are programs where you learn in a classroom setting, and I know that significant pharmacy franchises such as CVS would hire people and work towards certification. Good luck!
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Toni’s Answer

Becoming a pharmacy technician is hard work. Regardless of which environment you choose to work in you will be busy! A national board certification is required at some point. States differ in what work they will allow you to do until you are certified. Some states will allow you to cashier in the pharmacy while obtaining certification and others will not, You will need to contact your State Board of Pharmacy to find this out. The pay also varies by state. Arizona technicians will make $16 to approximately $28 per hour depending on your experience. Best of luck!
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THINH’s Answer

I will just add on to those answer above. Be able to multi task and have patient/compassion. Most of the time you have to deal with impatient people, either it's your patients or co-worker/ other health care worker, so be prepare. Perseverance is key
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Brittany’s Answer

If you are in Texas you need to apply for a technician trainee license through the state board of pharmacy then you can get a job as a technician. The basic duties of a tech are to input data from prescriptions into the computer, produce the scripts into a labeled bottle for the patient, assist with patient drug pick up. There is much more to it than this but that’s a start.
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