The Pharmacy Technician prepares medications under the direction of a pharmacist. Often they measure, mix, count out, label, and record amounts and dosages of medications.
Tasks for the Pharmacy Technician
- The Pharmacy Technician receives written prescriptions or refill requests and verifies that information is complete and accurate.
- The Pharmacy Technician establishes and maintains patient profiles, including lists of medications taken by individual patients.
- The Pharmacy Technician maintains proper storage and security conditions for drugs.
- The Pharmacy Technician answers elephones, responds to questions or requests.
- The Pharmacy Technician repacks bulk medicines, fills bottles with prescribed medications, and types and affixes labels.
- The Pharmacy Technician mixes pharmaceutical preparations according to written prescriptions.
- The Pharmacy Technician cleans, and helps maintain, equipment and work areas, and sterilizes glassware according to prescribed methods.
- The Pharmacy Technician prices and files prescriptions that have been filled.
- The Pharmacy Technician assists customers by answering simple questions, locating items or referring them to the pharmacist for medication information.
- The Pharmacy Technician receives and stores incoming supplies, verifies quantities against invoices, checks for outdated medications in current inventory, and informs supervisors of stock needs and shortages.
The Pharmacy Technician needs knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs, assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction. The Pharmacy Technician needs knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications. The Pharmacy Technician needs knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar. The Pharmacy Technician needs knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming. The Pharmacy Technician needs knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology. The Pharmacy Technician needs knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatments alternatives, drug properties and interactions, preventive health-care measure.
Skill requirements for the Pharmacy Technician
- The Pharmacy Technician must give full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- The Pharmacy Technician must be able to talk to others to convey information effectively.
- The Pharmacy Technician understands the implications of new information for both current and future problem solving and decision making.
- The Pharmacy Technician actively looks for ways to help his customers.
- The Pharmacy Technician teaches others how to perform their duties while working in the pharmacy.
- The Pharmacy Technician must understand written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
- The Pharmacy Technician uses mathematics to solve problems.
- The Pharmacy Technician must be able to manage their time and the time of others on the staff.
- The Pharmacy Technician selects and uses training methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things. Often they need to be able to communicate effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
Ability requirement for the Pharmacy Technician
- The Pharmacy Technician needs the ability to see details at close range within a few feet of the observer.
- The Pharmacy Technician needs the ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- The Pharmacy Technician needs the ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- The Pharmacy Technician needs the ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- The Pharmacy Technician needs the ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
- The Pharmacy Technician needs the ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- The Pharmacy Technician needs the ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- The Pharmacy Technician must have the ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.