Pharmacy Technician

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Pharmacy technicians are in demand today and the job outlook for the foreseeable future is simply outstanding. In fact, any pharmacology based occupation will certainly be wide open and ever growing for years and years. With the oldest of the baby boomers getting ready to retire and with people living longer than ever before there is no simply no way to go wrong with a career in pharmacology. Pharmacy technicians are currently in high demand and jobs are opening up faster than they can be filled and due to the fact there can be as many as four technicians aiding one single pharmacist… well, you get the picture.

Initially, pharmacy technician students are required to follow the same educational and training path that pharmacists travel except their training stops short of having to complete a full fledged PharmD degree.

Although the pay is less than a pharmacist, a highly qualified pharmacy technician can still make a respectable living in a rewarding and challenging career.

Like a pharmacist, pharmacy technicians also serve patients but in most pharmacies they report directly to the pharmacist. A pharmacy technician has duties that are both challenging and rewarding.

Overall, the duties of pharmacy technician are pretty consistent regardless of their place of employment which can range from the traditional pharmacy to hospitals and clinics to mail order pharmacies.

The workplace options are another appealing aspect to a pharmacy technician career. The breakdown in workplace options is roughly like this. About 70% of pharmacy technician jobs are currently in retail pharmacies which includes both chain store pharmacies and independently owned pharmacies.

Another 20% of pharmacy technician jobs are located in hospitals and the rest are scattered throughout clinics, wholesale and mail order pharmacies.

A few of the most important skills a pharmacy technician needs to master are people skills, organization, the ability to focus and perform under a wide variety of pressure situations, multi-tasking, the ability to work independently and a knack to handle it all with a smile.

These skills and character traits enables your supervising pharmacist to have the confidence that you can handle all types of situations and the ability to delegate whatever task needs to be done and that you'll get it done and done right.

In addition to having a good working relationship with your supervising pharmacist, as a pharmacy technician you will also be required to interact on a daily basis with patients, pharmacist aids and other healthcare professionals. As a result, teamwork is another vital aspect any highly trained pharmacy technician.

As a pharmacy technician your daily duties can vary greatly and can range from verifying the accuracy of prescriptions, labeling bottles, inventory, interacting with patients, database management and whatever the supervising pharmacist needs done.

Although working in a clean, controlled work environment is nice, it's certainly not the primary factor that appeals to those interested in becoming a pharmacy technician but it's simply another one of those subtle benefits of this ever growing career in the healthcare industry.

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