Imagine taking care of an entire military base going through an epidemic of chicken pox. Everyone will need the proper medicine to get better quickly in order to serve their country. What if there were no people to correctly monitor how much medicine each individual was receiving? People wouldn’t get better and might do damage to themselves in the long run. Fortunately a group of dedicated and highly trained pharmacy technicians at Patrick Air Force Base is on stand-by to administer the proper solution.
Getting job experience and an associates degree is a very important step to becoming a pharmacy technician. Here are some of the aspects which the career path entail:
The Training:
While pharmacists are required to attend a specialized school in order to practice their profession; there is no set standard for pharmacy technicians. Most jobs require that you graduate high school and have some experience before starting work. Many employers will want to train you a specific way so you can learn how to best work with a specific pharmacist, get used to particular retail schedules, and how to operated equipment.
Pharmacy technician schools around the country offer associates’ degrees to better train pharmacy technicians. In these programs you will learn how to use technology in a pharmacy setting, drug terms and expressions, how to correctly administer doses, and how to keep track of records. While a degree is not essential to landing a pharmacy tech job, most employers want one because of the competition for these spots.
The Work
You can think of a pharmacy technician job as sort of an assistant to a pharmacist. You will be filling orders and checking prescriptions for accuracy. While the pharmacist consults with patients, doctors, and drug companies about what they are prescribing; the technician is working right beside him or her to make sure that everything runs smoothly. You will also be facing customers all day long, so having good service skills and a positive mindset are very important traits for pharmacy technicians.
Job Opportunities
Most people picture pharmacy technicians as pill dispensers situated under fluorescent lights at their local grocery store, Target, or Walgreens. According to the Department of Labor, about 75 percent of all pharmacy technician jobs are in a retail setting. There are also opportunities for employment in hospitals, military bases, and retirement communities. There will be no shortage of work for pharmacy techs because the entire health care industry is set to expand within the next couple of years.
If you never imagined yourself working behind the counter of a pharmacy because science wasn’t your forte in high-school; check out a pharmacy technician school.