About Pharmacy Technicians
What Does a Pharmacy Technician Do?
Working as a pharmacy technician can be a rewarding experience if you are interested in pharmacology. With this job, you can maintain patient records, gather the medications from behind the counter, count an package pills, and fill bottles. You can give medications (both prescription and over the counter) to patients who come in to fill their scripts or ask for medicine. In addition, you can give information about medication to patients who may have questions or concerns. You are the one making sure patients safely receive their medicines.
Schooling Required for Pharmacy Technician
To become a pharmacy tech, you can enroll in a technical school, but a degree is not necessarily required. Depending on local laws, the main thing you need is a pharmacy tech certification. To acquire this, you must pass an examination. There are various pharmacy technician training programs available to help you prepare for getting your certification. Sometimes the programs are offered through schools and sometimes they are offered through pharmacy companies that you agree to work for. Training for your license may take only a few months or a little over a year depending on how you progress and your level of knowledge.
Costs and Wages
Pharmacy technician programs vary in terms of cost and there may be a fee required to take the certification test depending on your area and your program. It may be a few hundred dollars or, if it's through a tech college, it may cost considerably more. One online source ensures you can take the test for free and purchase the necessary learning materials for a total of $434. A pharmacy technician job can pay fairly well given that no college degree is necessarily required. A web page states that the job "earns an average wage of $12.68 per hour." This amounts to a yearly income of around $24,300 working full-time, though some sources estimate that $30,000 is more correct.
Pharmacy Technician as a Starting Point
You don't have to stop after receiving your pharmacy tech certification. The certification is, for many people, a starting point to get further into the field of pharmacology. If you get a Bachelor's degree in a field related to pharmacology, and you have a few years of experience working as a certified pharmacy tech, you will be much more likely to be accepted into Master's and even PhD programs. A few possible areas of study are pharmacology, forensic pharmacology, immunology, clinical biochemistry, and analytical chemistry. If you plan on going to medical school someday, certifications like pharmacy technician may give you a boost into the field.
Check with a place like Western Career Training to find out if a program like this is right for you.