Pharmacy Ethics, Competencies, Associations, and Settings for

Technicians

Chapter 3

Objectives

• Describe the competencies involved in the pharmacy setting.

• Explain the term nondiscretionary duties.• Explore & describe various settings for

technicians.• List the new position openings for technicians

that are available in the healthcare field.• Describe the various aspects of national

certification for the pharmacy technician.

Objectives (cont’d)

• Differentiate between licensing, registration, and certification.

• State the pharmacy code of ethics.• Explore the various websites that can be used

to attain continuing education credits.

Introduction

• Job descriptions and educational requirements of pharmacy technicians are rapidly changing.– Increased responsibilities, higher education, more

legal responsibilities, continuing education• Each of the 50 states has not standardized the

qualifications and job descriptions for the pharmacy technician.

Introduction (cont’d)

• Each state’s Board of Pharmacy determines what standards are and how they must be met by technicians.

• Technicians throughout the United States will become respected as pharmacy paraprofessionals.

Historical Data

• Historically, technicians have answered to a variety of titles such as the following:– Pharmacy clerk– Pharmacist assistant– Pharmacy aid– Pharmacy technician– Pharmacy helper

Responsibilities

• Job responsibilities include billing, ordering, stocking, entering data, answering phones, troubleshooting, cashiering, and running errands

Competencies

• Common responsibilities of a pharmacy technician include: dosage forms, abbreviations, and routes of administration; and conversions and calculations.

Current Qualifications• Each state has its own Board of Pharmacy overseen by the

National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.• A BOP registers technicians and licenses pharmacists, and it

also provides consumers with a way to complain or report any problems or illegal actions they have experienced in a pharmacy.

• A BOP reviews and updates current rules and regulations pertaining to pharmacy practice; expands use of technicians in the pharmacy field.

Nondiscretionary Duties

• Technicians perform many types of nondiscretionary duties.

• Nonjudgmental means that any task completed in a pharmacy setting must be checked and approved by a pharmacist.

• It limits technicians from interpreting scientific studies, counseling patients, or conferring with other medical personnel.

Basic Nondiscretionary Skills

• Typing• Computers• Reports and documentation• Ordering supplies

Practice Settings

Inpatient• More direct contact with

healthcare providers.• Medically complex cases.• Hospital• Nursing Home (Skilled nursing

center)• Custodial Care settings.

Outpatient• Ambulatory Pharmacies• Clinic Pharmacies• Compounding Pharmacies

Other• Mail Order• Home Infusion• Warehouse Pharmacy • Medical Records

• PBM• Education• Sales

Inpatient Pharmacy

Inpatient Setting Requirements

• Inpatient pharmacy refers to hospitals in which patients stay overnight or longer, depending on the procedures they require.

• Inpatient pharmacies traditionally have a wider range of stock than outpatient pharmacies.

Inpatient Setting Requirements (cont’d)

• Inpatient pharmacy requires the ability to prepare parenterals, hyperalimentations, and chemotherapy.

• Technicians are required to help the pharmacist answer phones, prepare first doses, load medication drawers (24-hour supply), and prepare unit dose medications.

Inpatient Setting Requirements (cont’d)

• Two reasons for repackaging medications:– The drug companies do not have the medication

available in unit dose– The hospital has chosen to prepare its own

medication for cost-saving reasons

Inpatient Setting Requirements (cont’d)

• Inventory technician, robot filler, IV technician, chemotherapy technician, anticoagulant technician, clinical technician, supervisory technician

Outpatient Pharmacy

Community (Outpatient) Setting Requirements

• Outpatient pharmacy is most difficult task because of front-line interaction with patients on a daily basis.

• Job tests communication skills and stress level.• There is a high volume of interacting on the

telephone, taking in refill prescriptions, answering insurance questions.

Community (Outpatient) Setting Requirements (cont’d)

• Computer skills are needed to access patient information.

• Stock must be ordered in a timely manner.• Billing to insurance companies and knowing

the various rules, regulations, and special codes for each prescription is important.

Community (Outpatient) Setting Requirements (cont’d)

• Insurance billing technician, retail technician, stock inventory technician, technician recruiter, technician trainer

Closed-Door Pharmacy Requirements

• A home health pharmacy fits somewhere between an inpatient and an outpatient pharmacy.

• Technicians process medications for patients on a weekly or monthly basis.

• There are no patients, doctors, nurses, or other healthcare providers in this pharmacy.

• Pharmacies are based away from hospital sites and are not open to the public.

• Medications are packaged in cardboard blister packs.

Closed-Door Pharmacy Requirements (cont’d)

• Home health nurses provide services in the home setting and receive supplies from the pharmacy, or patient’s family could pick up or have supplies delivered.

Closed-Door Pharmacy Requirements (cont’d)

Mail Order Pharmacy/E-Pharmacy

• These types of pharmacies provide for common acquired illnesses specific to older people.

• They are contained in large buildings in industrial areas that are used to process new or refill prescriptions.

• Mail order is new area of pharmacy that is steadily growing.

Professionalism

• Profession: a job, occupation, or line of work that becomes a career.

• Professionalism: Conforming to right principles of conduct (work ethics) as accepted by others in the profession.

Morals vs. Ethics in the Workplace

• Pharmacy technicians have a clear responsibility to the patient on many levels.

• Although ethics tend to overlap many morals, they need to be separated in the workplace.

• See Pharmacy Technicians Code of Ethics, Box 3-4.

Protocol

• Protocol: a set of standardized rules that are agreed on within a pharmacy setting

• Can encompass behavior, tasks required, as well as how drugs will be dispensed and ordered

Communication

• Good communication skills include: diplomacy, compassion, sensitivity, responsibility, tact, and patience.

• Forms of communication include: listening skills, body language, verbal communication, phone etiquette, and writing skills.

• Communicating effectively with patients of all types and with various social and medical conditions.

Confidentiality

• Patients have a right to privacy concerning their medications, treatment, or any aspect of their health care.

Different Levels of Pharmacy Technician

• Four levels of pharmacy technicians:– Licensed– Registered– Certified– No specialized training

• Qualifications may differ by state.

National Certification for Technicians

• Two organizations certify pharmacy technicians:– Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) – Institute for the Certification of Pharmacy

Technicians (ICPT)

National Certification for Technicians

• The following are goals for pharmacy technicians:– To work more effectively with pharmacists– To provide greater patient care and services– To create a minimum standard of knowledge– To help employers determine knowledge base

Continuing Education

• A technician who is nationally certified can use the title Certified Pharmacy Technician and place the letters CPhT behind his or her name.

• Continuing education credits are necessary to maintain certification.

Continuing Education

• ACPE offers CE specifically for pharmacy technicians.

• Pharmacy technicians can also take technician versions of tests for pharmacists.

• NABP recommends making certification a requirement for all technicians by 2015.

Opportunities for Technicians

• Proper educational training (AS or BS in computer science) can lead to writing software or supplying support.

• One can also write curricula, articles, and books for technician training.

• Completion of a training program that offers a degree, such as a certificate, diploma, AA, AS, BA, or BS is possible.

Opportunities for Technicians (cont’d)

• Pharmacy business management operator, computer support technician, software writer, author, poison control call center operator, nuclear pharmacy technician, training program director/instructor, corporate pharmacy analysis, pharmacy supervisors, clinical coordinator

Professional Technician Associations

• Four main associations concerned with practice of pharmacy:– APhA, ASHP, AAPT, NCPA, NPTA – Provides resources to benefit career-oriented

technician– CE, legislation, pharmacy technician division,

journals, books, CE seminars, websites– See Table 3-3

The Job Search

• Highlight education rather than work experience.

• Pharmacy is a conservative profession.• Professional dress, knowledge, competency

required.• Pharmacy technician to show public he or she

is professional.• See Box 3-12 for job-searching websites.

The Resume

• List jobs where you have had customer service or those where you managed yourself or others.

• Keep it to one page.• Line up references beforehand.• See Box 3-13.

Professional Dress

• Dressing professionally includes: – Proper clothing, shoes, and hairstyle– A lack of off-colored hair, facial jewelry, visible

tattoos, or any other feature that detracts attention from your personality

The Possibilities

• Pharmacy profession changing• Education requirements for pharmacists:

PharmD• Pharmacist’s role: patient consultation, drug

information provider• Pharmacy technician role: clinical,

chemotherapy, nuclear medicine, inventory

Questions??