How do you become a pharm tech?

September 28, 2009 4:09 PM

How do you become a pharm tech?

I've been searching on the internet for a while for this. There are all sorts of websites, with some trying to advertise or sell online courses to become a pharmacy technician. I've even queried this already on studentdoctor.net, but nobody has really given me an answer that is direct and informative. I'm turning to the metafi community, who appear to give better answers.

I'm planning on studying on my own, and taking the test. What is the best book to study for the pharmacy tech certification test? And, after I take the test, how would I go about applying for jobs? ---I want to work where I would most likely learn the most (lab? hospital? or retail?) and where I would most likely build a relationship with an advisor to ask in the future for a letter of recommendation in the future. I've been to some retail pharmacies in passing, and observed that some of the people behind the counter seem stressed out and not that "nice talking" to customers. I'll apply anywhere, but I'd prefer to kinda get a feel for where would be a good fit and so that I can have an overall good experience.

And also, do pharm techs work anyplace other than hospitals and retail pharmacies? I know that sounds obvious, but I'm already wondering if there are other options like helping out with studies or something that I'm unaware of.

Any input, or suggestions would be helpful! throw away: [e-mail]

posted by anonymous to Education (8 answers total)

Have you tried applying to work at a CVS or a Walgreens as a pharmacy associate? I did that in high school with no experience, and they train you on the job to eventually become a technician. When I worked there they were all about getting people certified.
posted by amethysts at 4:12 PM on September 28, 2009 [1 favorite]

Anonymous?

Don't community colleges offer one-year courses that will train and certify you at the same time?
posted by rokusan at 4:26 PM on September 28, 2009

I was a pharmacy tech for 3 or 4 years. If you live in a small town, sometimes you can get a job as a tech without any experience and they will train you. I say small town because larger places pretty much always have a big enough pool of experienced techs and don't need to hire anyone green.

I will go ahead and be a giant bummer and say that you are very, very unlikely to pass the test without either going through a pharmacy tech diploma program at a community college or getting some work experience. I'm sure you're super smart and all, and it's not that the test is incredibly difficult...it's just not something you're probably going to pass without some actual training. I don't say this out of any kind of grand loyalty to the sanctity of pharmacy technology; it's just kind of how it is.

You will learn a lot more about drugs working in a hospital, but probably almost nothing about insurance reimbursement and not much about pharmacy law. In retail, on the other hand, you will become more conversant with laws and regulations and insurance, but you won't pick up as much about the drugs themselves and you will have exposure to far, far fewer of them. A hospital will have pretty much everything a retail pharmacy would have, plus all the antineoplastics, blood products, TPN, etc. Personally I think hospital is a lot more intellectually stimulating if you are really interested in learning.

Techs can also work in compounding pharmacies (that's a type of retail pharmacy, but very very different), in pharmacy warehouse-type places that supply nursing homes, and in specialty pharmacies that supply certain odd drugs that you can't just get at the regular CVS. If you're interested in study work, any teaching hospital will have an investigational pharmacy program, although there may not be a technician solely devoted to that.

Feel free to MeMail me for any other information you might want, unless you are totally committed to maintaining your anonymity for some strange reason :)
posted by feathermeat at 4:38 PM on September 28, 2009 [3 favorites]

I meant to say that compounding pharmacy is very very different from your typical retail pharmacy like CVS. More here. It's like what you might imagine an old-timey pharmacy being like, with mortars and pestles and stuff. Very cool, but those jobs are few and far between, and I expect even less available to someone without significant pharmacy experience. That's just speculation though.
posted by feathermeat at 4:42 PM on September 28, 2009

Assuming you're in the United States, here is the US Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook entry on pharmacy technicians. This page addresses your questions on education and work environment, among other things.
posted by shiny blue object at 4:42 PM on September 28, 2009

Don't bother with the course. The book you want is "Certification Review for Pharmacy Technicians" by Noah Reifman. It's the gold standard for a primary study guide.
Now hit the pavement.
Apply at every pharmacy in town. If you have any experience running a cash register, working with computers, or any sort of call center experience, make sure it's on your resume. This goes double for customer service experience. This will probably be a very stressful job that you won't enjoy. Expect to get turned down many times before getting hired. Plan on staying on for around two years.
You'll usually have a year to study as a tech in training. Yes. You will be a tit.
You'll have at least two chances to take your test, and most big chains will reimburse you for the cost of the test and state registration. After all of that, you can start to get choosy about where you work. I've heard good and bad things about mail order. Hospital work sounds interesting (especially if you aren't fantastic with people). I've been a compounding tech for the last two years at an independent pharmacy and I LOVE it. Sadly, there really isn't any way around the time you have to spend in the trenches. The good news is that any job you get in the industry that isn't retail is going to seem like heaven after that. Good luck!
posted by metricfuture at 4:50 PM on September 28, 2009 [2 favorites]

I've been a Pharm Tech for the last nine years at Seattle Children's Hospital. If you happen to be in Seattle I could arrange for you to shadow me and we could talk about it all day.

From what I've learned, working in a hospital seems way more interesting than retail. In fact, we are cross-trained to work in nine or ten different 'positions', and each one is like a completely seperate job. It takes years to get good at all of them, and it's never boring as you rotate through them.

Furthermore, working at a children's hospital is more interesting than working at a hospital with an adult population, because we have to create smaller doses of many things, and we have to compound 'special dilutions' of many things (weaker oral liquid meds for example). It's fascinating, because although kids weigh less, they metabolically 'burn more brightly' so they metabolize things faster.

Inpatient hospital settings are great because as a tech you are way less concerned with billing issues- you just prep and deliver the meds. Outpatient techs are way more concerned with 'who pays for it' and they have to deal with insurance companies a lot. They don't really hand out stuff until they are assured of payment.

I just got home from work. Today I prepared a 'med bin' for each of our 250 beds. These bins were rolled out into the hospital at 1430 and delivered. Many techs worked together as a team to make sure those bins were completely accurate and contained all of the different types of meds - I.V. doses made in sterile hoods, drawn up to patient-specific doses and hand labelled, unit doses plucked from shelves, custom made hand labelled 'tablet shorts' and 'liquid shorts' (tablets literally cut with a razor blade to tiny kiddie doses)...

During the day, kids are being admitted, discharged and transferred between rooms, too. So it's like working on a puzzle where the pieces are constantly moving. It's an extraordinary process.

Techs in WA (and several other states) have to get a license from the state. This usually requires a yearlong training program from a place such at PIMA or a community college. People in those programs need to learn things on-the-job, so they come to us as externs and we directly train them on our jobs for several weeks, until their extern hours are fulfilled. In fact, we had an extern today working alongside us.

I'm getting long winded here so I'll sum it up - it really is a career path, and at the hospital level it is way more complicated than you might imagine. Our pharmacy has been in continuous operation 24/7/365 for over 100 years! In the last nine years I've seen the hospital double in size, and in the next ten years it's going to double in size again to 500 beds. So, there's going to be plenty of job security for me, which feels pretty good in this economy...

So I say GO FOR IT, it's a crazy adventure that will change you into more than you thought you could be!
posted by markjamesmurphy at 5:05 PM on September 28, 2009 [2 favorites]

The PTCB is a company that regulates pharmacy technicians. In order to become a certified pharmacy technician (CPhT) you will have to pay about $1k for a course, and take a test at the end. Local community colleges usually offer these course.

However, before you put your money down, keep in mind that some states license pharmacy technicians, and some states do not -- which is where the PTCB comes in. Being a CPhT may be of no use to you in your states if your state regulates the licensure. You should check with your state's Board of Pharmacy to see if your state regulates them or not, they usually have a webpage and a link to providers of education required to meet the licensure.
posted by 517 at 5:57 PM on September 28, 2009