Sacramento is the capital city of California and is located in the northern portion of the state’s Central Valley. The city itself has a population of over 470,000 people. The Greater Sacramento Area (Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Yuba City, California-Nevada) has been described as one of the country’s fastest growing regions and boasts over 2 million residents. The Sacramento [...]
Central City Concern’s Old Town Clinic (located in Portland, Oregon) meets the pharmaceutical needs of nearly 4,000 low income individuals. Over the last few years, it has grown from filling 200 prescriptions per day to 500 (and it is predicted this could increase to 1,000 scripts per day in the coming year). Two generous gifts [...]
Curt Bielski and Kari Teel have at least two things in common: Both, as baby boomers, enrolled in college pharmacy technician programs. They are not alone as more and more individuals in their 50s and older are going back to school in order to start new careers, either out of necessity or because they are [...]
Trident Technical College in Charleston, South Carolina, offers a one-year pharmacy technician program that is accredited by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). Trident accepts 24 students into its pharmacy tech program each year. PharmacyTechSchools.com recently caught up with one of this year’s students, Rosie Crawford. In this interview, Crawford discusses her inspiration for [...]
Mayra Ruiz Gallegos is a pharmacy technology student at Carrington College’s Mesa Campus in Arizona. She started her program, which trains students to become successful pharmacy technicians, in November 2013. She has been blogging about her experiences, from her enrollment interview and first day of class to how the pharmacy tech core class has gone [...]
On December 27, 2013, the National Association of Professional Women announced they named Jillian Hernandez a Professional Woman of the Year (2013/2014). Specifically they were honoring her with this title “for leadership in long term care consulting” as a pharmacy technician. Pharmacy Technician Jillian Hernandez Hernandez first started working as a pharmacy technician in 2001 [...]
Last year, patients at a number of Canadian hospitals (four in Ontario and one in New Brunswick) were given diluted forms of chemotherapy drugs. When it was discovered that bags containing the drugs cyclophosphamide and gemcitabine were watered down, more than 1,200 patients had already been administered incorrect dosages of the medications. As a pharmacy [...]
Combined with recent career projection reports outlining promising growth for the healthcare industry means a positive outlook for pharmacy professionals, including pharmacy technicians.
If you still need to get something for that special pharmacy technician, or if you’re looking for a way to spread some joy and compassion this season, it’s not too late. Here are just a few ideas to “give the gift of giving” throughout the holidays or into the New Year. Pharmacy Technician Memberships/Certifications If [...]
Pharmacy technicians play key roles in both healthcare and customer service—two sectors that don’t slow down during the holidays. If you are just starting out as a pharmacy technician, or find this time of year particularly tough, here are some tips that might help make these holidays more “merry and bright.” Surviving the Holiday Shopping [...]
Recently compounding has been making a comeback so that pharmacies can cater to patients with individual requirements. Before mass manufacturing became the mainstream source of prescription drugs, most medications were compounded.
If you read the latest News Alert we posted on PharmacyTechSchools.com, you know that the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) recently announced that they have certified more than 500,000 pharmacy technicians! According to their October 2nd press release, 503,620 individuals have passed the PTCB’s Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam (PTCE) as of June 30, 2013! This [...]
More and more pharmacies (including retail chain, independent and online) are dispensing pet medications. Traditionally, this niche was filled primarily by veterinarians, but now a growing number of pet owners are choosing to fill their animal companion’s prescriptions at the same pharmacy where they get their own personal medications or from online retailers. Price savings [...]
According to the American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC), “Specialty drugs represent the fastest growing sector of pharmacy spending today.” What are Specialty Drugs? The AJMC article from February 18, 2013, (“The Growing Cost of Specialty Pharmacy—Is it Sustainable?”) states that, while there is no universal definition for specialty pharmaceuticals, common criteria include drugs that [...]
Pharmacy technicians are multi-taskers and multi-talented. They are communicators, providing patients with quality customer service, conferring with other healthcare departments or organizations, not to mention the pharmacist (whose job they make so much easier). They are knowledgeable in their field and their roles of dispensing medications with 100% precision, maintaining inventory, updating electronic files and [...]