Pharmacy Techs: Job Challenges and Career Satisfaction
Pharmacy technicians play a major role in providing quality care to patients. Their number-one responsibility is to help prevent medication errors by their employing pharmacies. The professional pharmacy tech has to be alert and cognizant at all times about drug dosages, calculating and compounding medications with utmost accuracy. Lives may depend on it.
When employed at long-term care and nursing home facilities, pharmacy techs have the additional opportunities for direct interaction with patients. Techs may assemble and deliver daily medications for a large number of people, ensuring accuracy in measurements and in recording patient data on charts.
For those who enjoy helping people and providing care to a distressed population, pharmacy tech jobs allow social interactions where patience and compassion lead to great satisfaction. Pharmacy techs must study pharmacy law, standards, and ethics -- all parts of a well-rounded curriculum that prepares them with ensuring high-quality treatment and professionalism. Coursework also includes studies on drug compounding, medical terminology, dosage forms and routes of administration, and how drugs work in the body.
While the National Pharmacy Technician Certification Examination is voluntary in most states in the country, most pharmacy techs take great pride and satisfaction knowing they match up well with national standards. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), about 258,000 pharmacy technicians worked in 2004. Job opportunities are expected to remain good, the BLS reports, and will grow at a rate faster than the average for all occupations through the year 2014.
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