Pharmacy Technician Job Description

To put it simply, a pharmacy technician job description consists of receiving and filling prescription requests for patients. These requests can come directly from the patient, nurses, physicians or hospitals, and must be carried out under the supervision of licensed pharmacists.

Prescription preparation can take the form of several tasks, including:

-Retrieving prescription orders
-Counting, measuring, mixing and weighing medications
-Making sure the correct prescription container is chosen
-Creating prescription labels

After having filled the prescription, a technician must price and file the medication. The licensed pharmacist, who supervises pharmacy technicians, then checks the prescription before a patient is able to receive it.

Other Responsibilities

Apart from preparing prescriptions, technicians may also need to look after the pharmacy itself, including interactions with patients and hospitals. Some of the other duties one can expect to perform may include:

-Preparing insurance claim forms
-Keeping patient profiles up-to-date
-Answering the phone
-Undertaking cash register transactions
-Keeping up-to-date with the latest medicines and their availability
-Inventorying over-the-counter medications
-Measuring liquid medicines
-Verifying prescriptions

Duties may also include advising patients on health and diet requirements. Therefore, the majority of employers require pharmacy technicians to gain this knowledge through certification.

Working Environment

Pharmacy techs work in organized, clean environments, and spend much of their working day on their feet. They can work in a range of facilities, including:

-Pharmacies
-Hospitals
-Nursing Homes
-Health & Personal Care Stores
-Retail or Mail-Order Pharmacies
-Assisted Living Facilities

While those working in this field typically work a standard 9-5, working on weekends or evenings may also be required, although this depends on the environment worked in and what is demanded from the employer. Pharmacy techs can also work part-time or full-time, again depending on the employer.

Other Skills

There are a few traits that aspiring technicians should possess. While possessing all of the following traits is not a requirement to work in the field, they are useful to have as it maximises the chances of job being found as soon as possible.

Customer Service

As a pharmacy technician spends much of his day interacting with other people, he or she must be able to provide a high level of customer service. One should be able to give his full attention to people and should be able to understand and take on board the points and opinions made by patients.

Communication

Being able to communicate effectively is an important trait to possess, as technicians must interact with colleagues and patients on a daily basis. Therefore, the ability to convey the information patients/colleagues need to know in an easy to understand manner is needed.

Reading Skills

As the job is focused on preparing prescriptions, a person must be able to easily read doctor's handwriting - which as we all know - can be very difficult for the majority of the population.

Math Skills

While an advanced understanding of math is not required, a basic understanding of solving math problems is. However, this can vary by employer, therefore, solving math problems is not always part of a pharmacy technician job description.