Pharmacy Technicians

What is a pharmacy technician?

Pharmacy technicians work in community pharmacies and pharmacy departments in hospitals. They are also employed by pharmaceutical companies and pharmaceutical wholesalers.

Pharmacy technicians always work under the supervision of a registered pharmacist. They assist pharmacists with the dispensing of prescription medicines. The title ‘pharmacy technician’ describes people who hold a recognised pharmacy technician qualification or who are enrolled in and actively completing a training programme leading to the National Certificate in Pharmacy (Technician) Level 5. By law only pharmacists, intern pharmacists and pharmacy technicians can dispense prescription medicines in a pharmacy.

Pharmacy technicians need to be honest, motivated and well organised, have good attention to detail, enjoy working as part of a team and be interested in people.

What do pharmacy technicians do?

Pharmacy technicians assist the pharmacist in the preparation of prescriptions and in the running of the dispensary. In community pharmacies a pharmacy technician’s tasks and duties vary depending on how many staff are employed in the dispensary and the types of services the pharmacy provides to the community. As a guide a pharmacy technician’s tasks generally include:

• checking that prescriptions meet the legal requirements, are accurate and the medicine prescribed is the correct one for the patient
• entering prescription details in the computer, preparing labels and dispensing the medicine
• maintaining computer held patient records
• issuing medicines to patients and ensuring that they know how to use them
• administrative duties such as forwarding prescriptions to doctors when they need altering, and collating claims for payment of dispensed prescriptions

Technicians who hold the National Certificate in Pharmacy can compound pharmaceutical products such as creams, mixtures, or intravenous injections.

In pharmacies that supply medicines to rest homes or other residential care facilities the technician’s role often includes packaging medicines for the residents into special packs known as unit dose or compliance packs. These packs make it easy for residents to self administer their medicines or for staff at the facility to keep track of each resident’s medicines.

In addition, pharmacy technicians are usually responsible for keeping the dispensary and dispensing equipment hygienically clean and tidy, and for checking stock levels of medicines and preparing and placing orders for new stock.

Pharmacy technicians often help in the general running of the pharmacy by preparing invoices, receipts, letters, memos and general filing, answering the pharmacy phone and receiving and sending emails and faxes.

In community pharmacies, pharmacy technicians may also work in the retail area of the pharmacy; advising customers on non-prescription medicines and on health or grooming related products.

In hospital pharmacy departments, pharmacy technicians are involved in dispensing in-patients’ medicines, supplying wards with medicines, monitoring ward stock cupboards and emergency supplies and manufacturing medicines for patient’s particular needs. This can include preparing specialised products such as intravenous solutions or chemotherapy injections used to treat cancer. Senior pharmacy technicians are often responsible for supervising other technicians.

Personal Qualities

As a pharmacy technician you must be interested in people. A substantial amount of the work involves dealing directly with customers who are sick or in need of personal health advice so you need to be:

• caring
• a good listener
• able to communicate easily with a wide range of people
• tactful and able to keep confidences
• patient
• reliable and trustworthy
• willing to learn
• able to plan and organise your time
• able to follow set protocols/guidelines
• Pharmacy technicians’ decisions and actions can have an impact on human life and wellbeing, consequently tidiness, accuracy, orderliness and cleanliness are important.
• They must be constantly vigilant to avoid errors that could endanger patients’ lives or reduce the effectiveness of the treatment.
• Pharmacy technicians work with some medicines and products that have the potential for misuse, so they must be honest and not have any criminal convictions.

All these qualities will be further developed as part of your training.

Why become a pharmacy technician?

• the work is interesting and varied and uses a wide range of skills
• you are part of an essential health service
• there are excellent career opportunities

What skills do you need?

• Interpersonal communication skills
• NCEA level 2 maths and English
• Customer service skills
• Excellent attention to detail
• A willingness to learn

What qualifications are needed?

Pharmacy technicians must hold the National Certificate in Pharmacy (Technician) Level 5, or be enrolled in a training programme and actively working to achieve this qualification. The content of this qualification is listed on the NZQA website: http://www.nzqa.govt.nz

How can you gain the National Certificate in Pharmacy Technician?

There are three ways:

1. Study full-time for 1 year at Academy North Shore or Academy Christchurch where the programmes combine classroom learning with on-site pharmacy experience.  If students do not already have the National Certificate in Pharmacy Level 3 they will be required to complete the assistants course first.  This can be done at Academy for 1 year full-time.
2. Earn as you learn with a combination of on-the-job learning and experience and a distance learning self-paced programme containing the relevant theory and knowledge through The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. Candidates would be expected to complete the programme within 3 years.
3. If you hold a NZ Dispensary Assistant Certificate, Pharmacy Technician Certificate or an overseas pharmacy qualification, you can enrol with PITO to complete an assessment-only up-grade programme. This programme allows exemption from any units that are equivalent to the qualification you already hold. Candidates would be expected to complete the programme within 9 to 12 months.

On the job training is provided in most pharmacy workplaces and the pharmacist plays a major role in this training. The pharmacist acts as a mentor for practical training whilst the theory training and assessment of competence is provided by TOPNZ or PITO.

For further information check out the providers’ websites or contact them directly.

The Open Polytechnic of NZ The Academy Group Pharmacy ITO

www.openpolytechnic.ac.nz www.academy.ac.nz  info@pito.org.nz

What is included in the training programme?

The training programme includes a range of pharmacy specific and generic work place unit standards registered on the NQF. Pharmacy technicians are also required to possess a current first aid certificate.

Areas of study include customer service, personal development, dispensing prescriptions and assisting patients to gain optimal benefit from dispensed medicines, handling hazardous substances, wound and disease management, nutrition, treating minor ailments, optical products, and sporting injuries.

Technicians who work in hospital pharmacy have the option of completing a unit standard in dispensing sterile products rather than in sporting injuries, optical products and home health care which have more relevance to community pharmacy technicians.

The full content of the National certificate in Pharmacy (Technician) is listed on the New Zealand Qualifications Authority website www.nzqa.govt.nz. The general workplace skill unit standards are available through the National Certificate providers or may be available through a local Polytechnic. Some general workplace skill unit standards may be completed at secondary school.

For further information contact the providers direct.

What career prospects are open to pharmacy technicians?

With the changes in the health system in New Zealand pharmacists are spending more time counselling patients on their medicines and providing extended pharmacy services so many pharmacists are delegating more responsibility for preparing the prescriptions to the pharmacy technician.

As well as working in community and hospital pharmacies in New Zealand pharmacy technicians are involved in other areas related to pharmacy. Pharmacy technicians work as sales representatives for pharmaceutical companies in wholesaling and manufacturing companies and also in research.

New Zealand qualifications are accepted in Australia and Great Britain and many technicians take the opportunity to work in these countries.

How do you get started?

First approach local pharmacists in your area and ask if you can spend some time in the pharmacy to get an idea of what working as a pharmacy technician is like. You may even be able to find one who will offer you work after school and at weekends.

Talk to your careers advisor about the National Certificate, it may be possible to complete some of the work skills unit standards while you are still at school, you may even be able to get a placement in a pharmacy through the Gateway Programme.

Prepare your CV and a covering letter stating why you want to become a pharmacy technician. Look out for jobs advertised in the newspaper or approach pharmacies directly to find out if there are any jobs available.