Workforce and Community Education

Where Learning Works!

Pharmacy Technician (WIA Approved)

Program Description

This comprehensive 60 hour course will prepare students to enter the pharmacy field. Course content includes medical terminology specific to the pharmacy, reading and interpreting prescriptions and defining drugs by generic and brand names. Students will learn dosage calculations, I.V. flow rates, drug compounding, dose conversions, dispensing of prescriptions, inventory control and billing and reimbursement.

The Pharmacy Technician Certification Program is offered through the Connecticut Pharmacists Association and includes a graded final exam to help prepare students for the PTCB exam.

Course topics include:

• Pharmacy history/discussion of various practice settings and the technician certification process
• Evolution of Pharmacy
• Review of hospital pharmacy setting, retail practice, regulatory agencies involved with a pharmacy practice, long term care practice setting, mail order pharmacy, home care pharmacy practice
• Pharmacy measures, roman numerals, abbreviations
• Review of generic drugs, basic biopharmaceuticals, dosage forms, patient profiles
• Prescription label requirements, order transcription, ordering and inventory control, drug pricing, third party reimbursement
• Formularies, unit dose systems, emergency and crash carts, house supplies, automatic stop orders, calculating number of doses required
• All major classes of drugs including top brand names and generic drugs
• Aseptic technique, handling of sterile products including antineoplastic agent considerations
• Basics of IV solutions, calculating 24 hour supply of IV solutions, percentages and electrolytes preparation
• Apothecaries’ and avoirdupois systems of measurement
• Children’s doses
• Allegation method, math review
• Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN), demonstration of TPN admixture, hands-on practice of IV admixture and parenteral medical prepartion.

Pharmacy Technician Brochure

Median Salary* $29,320
Resource:U.S. Bureau of Labor

Career Description + Lifestyle
Pharmacy Technicians may work in retail pharmacies, mail order pharmacies, home infusion pharmacies, long term care facilities, hospitals, clinics, pharmacy benefit managers and large industrial complexes. The demand for Pharmacy Technicians continues to grow with demand expected to increase substantially through 2008. This high demand is the result of the constant availability of new drugs, the national shortage of registered pharmacists, the establishment of certified pharmacy technicians and the aging population.

CERTIFICATIONS AND LICENSE
This program will prepare students to enter the pharmacy field and to take the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board’s PTCB exam.