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A pharmacy technician assists the pharmacist in providing and preparing medications for patients. The duties of a technician include creating patient’s prescription labels, carrying out mixing of various medications, selecting the right container for the prescriptions, retrieving various orders of the prescription and being tasked to pour, count, measure and weigh prescription tablets. A pharmacy technician must be very careful as mixing up someone's medication could be lethal. This guide will give you a basic understanding of what it takes to become a pharmacy technician and what you can expect from the field as a whole.
Pharmacy Technician Salary Information:
The average pharmacy technician salary range will be just under $30,000 according to industry standards. This can vary from state to state due to cost of living and experience. If you are looking to get into the health field then this type of job is a good way to enter the health care industry. The outlook is very good and there will always be people who need their prescriptions filled.
Pharmacy Technician Education Requirements:
To become a pharmacy technician, you must complete a certification program or get an associates degree from a college or accredited school. Typically, it takes an average of two years to graduate from school. You can speed this process up by joining the military and they have a special program that allows you graduate much sooner. You can also double up on courses. Another great program is going to school online as you can work around your classes. This especially works well for the beginning classes in which you are simply just having to memorize the different medications and what they do.
Pharmacy Technician Work Environments:
In most cases, you will end up working in a local neighborhood. Other places a pharmacy technician can find themselves are hospitals and even on military bases. Wherever people need prescriptions, is where you will find pharmacy techs. You may also be responsible for taking phone calls made to the pharmacy as well as being involved in the preparation of claims from an insurance cover. It is also important to develop good interpersonal skills to deal with patients and the other staff.
Once you get started and employed as a pharmacy technician you can always gave the option to advance into a better paying position by getting more specializations and education. This field is highly stable and will have no problem finding employment if you choose to go down this career path. |
