The pharmacy technician duties for a compounding pharmacy technician are many and varied. Basically you are a specialist working to make sure that there custom prescriptions made out in terms of the orders given by a doctor. This is part of the pharmacy technician job description that carries with it high responsibility as it allows the doctor to prescribe atypical medications.
Being a compounding pharmacy technician takes a lot higher level of education than most other pharmacy technician jobs. If you want to work as a compounding pharmacy technician you will need to get a bachelor’s (B.S.) or doctorate (PharmD) pharmacy degree from an accredited college or university. Once you have the necessary qualification you will then be able to work as a compounding pharmacy technician, once you have passed the necessary exam.
Because a compounding pharmacy technician is the one who has to deal with customers on a regular basis, he or she is required to have excellent interpersonal skills and be able to easily communicate with others. These personality requirements are essential if you are to be a compounding pharmacy technician who meets with success in your job. There are a large number of people from all walks of life that you will have to deal with on a regular basis. If you feel that you do not have the personality required to talk properly with these kinds of customers you may want to consider looking into alternative avenues of employment.
Compounding pharmacy technicians have to create complex compounds to give to patients. These may include medical gels, creams, lozenges, pills, eardrops, eye medications, ointments, supplements and solutions. In some cases they may have to create compounds that are to be administered to whole groups and in others simply to individuals. It is also part of the pharmacy technician job description for this type of pharmacy technician to make medicines that naturally have a bad taste more palatable for their patients. This involves adding flavoring and finding other ways to take the edge off the bad taste.
A big part of the pharmacy technician job description for compounding pharmacy technicians involves keeping everything at an appropriate level of cleanliness. It also involves making sure that all of the regulations that abound in the pharmaceutical industry are kept to at all times and that the rules are never contravened for any reason at all.
If you work as a compounding pharmacy technician then you may be eligible to earn in the region of around $52,000 per year. Remember that the amount you earn can vary quite drastically depending on where you work. Different states have different salaries, and even different cities within the same state can differ quite vastly. Your level of education and the industry in which you work can also affect how much you get paid for this position. If you want to find out more about salary you will have to do specific research for the state in which you work.
The Retail Pharmacy Technicians
Another position that you may be interested in as a certified pharmacy technician is in retail. In fact this is the area in which most pharmacy technicians are employed. The educational level that you require to be a retail pharmacy technician is not really very standard. There are no formal educational requirements necessary to do this job. However many employers do prefer you to at least have your high school diploma or GED to your name, and in general you will find it easier to get work if you do have some kind of formal qualifications in the area.
It is, as has been mentioned, not a requirement of the average pharmacy technician job description that you have to hold any formal qualifications. However if you want o stand a chance of getting a job it is in your best interests to get some kind of qualification from the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) or the Institute for the Certification of Pharmacy Technicians (ICPT). When an employer is faced with two candidates he is more likely to choose the one that has a Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) or the Institute for the Certification of Pharmacy Technicians (ICPT) qualification.
As a pharmacy technician working in retail your main pharmacy technician job description will include the following: greeting customers, taking prescription requests, assisting the pharmacist by counting pills or measuring liquids, labeling the prescription bottles, entering customer information into a computer system, printing the labels, including appropriate prescription information, answering phones, receiving payment from customers and maintaining inventory. These may not seem like the most exotic things you could possibly spend your time doing, but, as they are a big part of the average pharmacy technician job description you will need to be comfortable with performing these roles are all times.
As far as work environment goes you are in luck. You will work in very clean and well ventilated areas. You will also work in good lighting conditions at all times. However the pharmacy technician job description includes that you are able to stand for long periods of time. You may also be required to lift fairly heavy boxes and move them on a daily basis so there is a certain amount of physical strength needed in the pharmacy technician job description. Because you work in retail you may also be required to work on weekends or in the evenings.
The salary for a pharmacy technician working in retail is quite good. It is about $13.50 an hour, and this is not bad at all considering the tough times that we are living in. It is very important that you note, however, that the salary can differ drastically form this average for a number of reasons. The state you live in, for example, can affect how much you earn. It can also be affected by your level of qualification as well as who actually employs you. There are few standards in terms of the pharmacy technician job description.
Inpatient Pharmacy Technician
A compounding pharmacy technician is one that works under eh supervision of a licensed pharmacist to dispense medication. There are a number of things that this kind of pharmacy technician can do, but in general the roles is limited and supervision form an actual pharmacist is a constant requirement. IN short you have to process and fill out prescriptions under the guidance of a pharmacist if you want to work as a pharmacy technician in this regard.
The pharmacy technician job description for an inpatient pharmacy technician includes the fact that you will of course be working in a hospital or a similar medical institution. This is because you are dealing with inpatients that are in some kind of hospitalized setting. This is different to, for example, a retail pharmacy technician who only deals with outpatients. You will be working closely with the patients, so part of the pharmacy technician job description for this role is that you have a very good bedside manner. You will also have to have all of the interpersonal skills required by all pharmacy technicians.
The main pharmacy technician duties for an inpatient pharmacy technician involve labeling prescriptions, filling prescriptions, and assisting patients, inputting prescriptions in a computer system, verifying prescriptions and pre-packaging bulk medicines, all of which is very basic. Many of the aspects contained in the pharmacy technician job description for an inpatient technician are the same for other areas. These may seem to be very easy and not particularly glamorous duties to perform. If you feel that you would not be comfortable or happy to fulfill these duties than this may not, in the end, be the right job for you.
Part of the pharmacy technician job description involves knowing what kind of certification is required. In many states there is not certification required at all, while others require that you be certified to work as an inpatient pharmacy technician. These norms vary drastically, and can even be different within cities in the same state. To work as an inpatient pharmacy technician you are going to need to know what the norms are for your state and you are going to have to comply with them. This information is easy enough to find and makes it easier to fulfill the pharmacy technician job description.
The salary that you can earn in this position is something between $19,000 and $28,000. However, like it has been mentioned several times previously, there are major differences in salaries that can occur. If you want to earn a particularly high pharmacy technician salary there are some states where you will do better than others. This means that you need to do a bit of salary research before making your final decision about where you want to work as location can affect your salary quite a lot. However in general your decision in this regard should now be a lot easier.