The duties and responsibilities of a pharmacy technician depend on what institution you are working for. It is advisable that you familiarize yourself on what you have to do and what you should not do to minimize the occurrence of errors in your workplace. Keep in mind that the pharmacy technician certification serves as your license to facilitate medications that may affect the health and well being of people. You must therefore carry out your duties with a critical mind and careful hands.
1. Drug preparation
The reason why your training as a pharmacy technician includes a lot of pharmaceutical related courses is because you will basically be a hands-on person of medications. You will be assisting the pharmacist in doing the following tasks in drug preparation:
a. Weighing and measuring medications according to the physician’s orders
b. Combining and mixing medications
c. Packing and re-packing the medications according to their proper storage
d. Ensuring the right labeling, including precautions, of the drugs
2. Facilitate pharmaceutical transactions
If you will be having you career in other workplaces, you might be encountering transactions with pharmaceutical companies. If you plan to work in these institutions, your job will include taking the pharmaceutical orders, maintaining the stocks and ensuring the proper storage and transport of these products to the hospital or clinic that asked for them. This is just a general duty of a pharmacy technician in pharmaceutical companies, as it may vary depending on their rules and regulations.
3. Clerical Responsibilities
Your job as a pharmacy technician may also include computer and paper works. It is therefore useful if you are well versed with different computer programs because it will be a skill that you will need as a pharmacy technician.
a. Encoding patient’s records and stock related data into the computer.
b. Filing documents such as receipts, memoranda and patient related papers
c. Updating and maintaining pharmaceutical related inventories
d. Preparing, facilitating and tracking the patient’s insurance related concerns
e. Maintaining the balance and organizing the cash register
f. Answering phones specially if you are a pharmacy technician working for a mail order job
The good thing about the career of a pharmacy technician is that it is widespread and that you can explore other tasks aside from simply being an assistant to the pharmacist. What makes a job enjoyable is when you update yourself in making each task accomplished as efficient as you can.