pharmacy technician certification

The terms certification, accreditation, and credentialing are often used interchangeably when they apply to compounding-pharmacy qualifications, but they are not synonymous. The reasons for obtaining each, the requirements for each, and the benefits of each differ. Achieving such distinctions can negatively or positively affect the status of a pharmacy among peers and prescribers as well as a pharmacy's relationships with third-party payors. Changes in the third-party payor industry evolve constantly and, we suggest, will continue to do so...

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INTRODUCTION: Understanding how pharmacy technicians and other pharmacy support workforce cadres assist pharmacists in the healthcare system will facilitate developing health systems with the ability to achieve universal health coverage as it is defined in different country contexts. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the present global variety in the technician and other pharmacy support workforce cadres considering; their scope, roles, supervision, education and legal framework...

Background: Collection of a complete and accurate medication history is an essential component of the medication reconciliation process. The role of pharmacy technicians in supporting medication reconciliation has been the subject of recent interest. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to review the existing literature on pharmacy technician involvement in the medication reconciliation process and to summarize outcomes on the quality and accuracy of pharmacy technician-collected medication histories. Method: A literature review was conducted using MEDLINE and Academic Search Premier (1948 - April 2015)...

OBJECTIVES: It has been reported that supportive personnel, such as pharmacy technicians, are key participants in the use of health information technology. The purpose of this study was to describe how pharmacy technicians use e-prescribing and to explore the characteristics of technicians that support pharmacists in ensuring patient safety. METHODS: This was a qualitative study that used observations, interviews, and focus groups to understand the role of pharmacy technicians in e-prescribing...

PURPOSE: The successful enactment of mandatory pharmacy technician certification in Kansas is described. METHODS: In 2004, Kansas began requiring registration of all pharmacy technicians with the state board of pharmacy. Registration identified individuals working as pharmacy technicians but did not require any specific education or certification. In September 2012, the Kansas Board of Pharmacy created a task force of key stakeholders including pharmacists from multiple areas of practice, the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy, organizational leaders from the Kansas Council of Health-System Pharmacists (KCHP) and Kansas Pharmacists Association, and professional lobbyists...

OBJECTIVE: To discuss the policy of pharmacy technician-to-pharmacist ratios by comparing Florida as an example of legislative-led authority versus Tennessee as an example of board of pharmacy-led ruling. SUMMARY: Over the past 2 years, the Florida legislature has debated the issue of pharmacy staffing ratios, initially leaving the Florida Board of Pharmacy with little authority to advocate for and enact safe technician staffing ratios. Anticipating this situation, the Tennessee Board of Pharmacy created rules to meet pharmacy staffing needs while protecting the authority of the pharmacist-in-charge and promoting patient safety...

The Emily Jerry Foundation was instrumental in requiring training and certification for pharmacy technicians; and a representative from the institute for Safe Medication Practices discusses "off-the-beaten-track" areas of medication use.

Telepharmacy services were developed and adopted to compensate for the absence of a pharmacist in rural Cancer Centers. Preparation included the formation of an advisory committee, development of a training and certification process, establishing new policies and operating procedures, collecting utilization data and a survey of patient and user satisfaction. Pharmacy technicians at two remote community cancer centers were connected by telehealth with pharmacists at one of the two coordinating centers to oversee the compounding of intravenous (I...

Pharmacy technicians are integral to the success of parenteral compounding programs in pharmacies around the country. Their positions may vary depending on practice site, but technicians are critical to the pharmacy team, and it is imperative that they be appropriately trained to take on their roles and responsibilities. Numerous national pharmacy organizations support the need for a national standard for pharmacy technician training, education, certification, and regulatory oversight in all practice settings...

OBJECTIVE: To understand technicians' attitudes toward teaching student pharmacists and students' attitudes toward learning from technicians. METHODS: Survey data concerning technicians' perceived importance of pharmacy skills and their confidence in teaching those skills to student pharmacists were collected, as was survey data concerning students' comfort level with learning skills from technicians. Skills included in each survey aligned with common student pharmacist competencies and the pharmacy technician certification examination...

OBJECTIVE: This review will compare the USA and UK regarding pharmacy technicians' roles, it will summarize the current roles and responsibilities of pharmacy technicians in the USA, public perception of pharmacy technicians, pharmacy organizations' perspectives on pharmacy technician credentialing, academic programmes for pharmacy technicians, accreditation of pharmacy technician programmes, pharmacy technician certification exams and differing perspectives on the push for standardized technician training...

OBJECTIVE: To identify aspects of pharmacy technicians' experience, training, practice setting, and location that influence whether technicians undertook roles traditionally performed by pharmacists. DESIGN: Descriptive, nonexperimental, cross-sectional study. SETTING: North Dakota in 2005. PATIENTS: All 456 pharmacy technicians registered in North Dakota (response rate 42.1% [n = 192]) actively working in a pharmacy-related practice setting...

Public perception of a profession is extremely important, but even more vital is the actual worth the profession provides to those who partake of its services. As pharmacy recreates itself as a consultative profession, many changes are occurring in the college of pharmacy students' education. The onset of the Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE), the continued rotations in the Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE), and the proposal to have mandatory residencies occurring by 2020 show the steps that pharmacy will take to move forward...

The Yap Area Health Education Center (AHEC) is one of three U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration-funded AHEC programs in the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Island jurisdictions (together with those in Palau and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). The Pacific Island AHECs are administered through the University of Hawai'i, John A. Burns School of Medicine and were founded in response to recommendations for development of the local health workforce by the U.S. Institute of Medicine in its 1998 report, "Pacific Partnerships for Health"...

The importance of health workforce provision has gained significance and is now considered one of the most pressing issues worldwide, across all health professions. Against this background, the objectives of the work presented here were to systematically explore and identify contemporary issues surrounding expansion of the global pharmacy workforce in order to assist the International Pharmaceutical Federation working group on the workforce. International peer and non-peer-reviewed literature published between January 1998 and February 2008 was analysed...

Every busy professional needs support in the form of a well-trained assistant. In many practice settings, pharmacy technicians have assumed greater responsibilities and are vital in pharmacy practice, freeing pharmacists to concentrate on clinical care concerns. In many ways, the history of the pharmacy technician movement parallels that of pharmacists themselves.

OBJECTIVES: To assess pharmacist and pharmacy technician opinions on functions community pharmacy technicians should perform. DESIGN: Cross-sectional and descriptive. SETTING: Florida community pharmacies during August and September 2004. PARTICIPANTS: Random sample of Florida community pharmacists (n = 2,000) and Certified Pharmacy Technicians (n = 2,000). INTERVENTION: Self-administered mail questionnaire...

OBJECTIVE: To update the Pharmacy Technician Certification Examination based on analysis of pharmacy practice elements (functions, responsibilities, and knowledge). DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: United States in spring 2005. INTERVENTIONS: Web-based survey. PARTICIPANTS: Random sample of 4,000 Certified Pharmacy Technicians (CPhTs). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Respondents' ratings of each of the practice analysis elements, the time spent performing each function, and the frequency of performance of each responsibility and use of each knowledge base...

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