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Pharmacy Technician Program Overview
What is a Pharmacy Technician? A Pharmacy Technician is someone who assists licensed pharmacists in a wide variety of activities necessary for the dispensing of drugs and drug information.
When working In a retail pharmacy setting, technicians may prepare medications, order replenished stock , stock drugs both prescription and over the counter (OTC), maintain computerized patient medication records, generate prescription labels, prepare insurance claim forms, & manage the cash register.
When working in a hospital setting technicians may perform similar duties as they do in retail but also include repackaging medications, preparing commercially unavailable medications, preparing sterile intravenous medications, maintaining nursing station and cart medications, collecting quality improvement data, delivering medications to patient rooms, and operating computerized dispensing.
Pharmacy technicians are not limited to only working in your "traditional " pharmacy setting. Technicians also work in many other fields such as, home health care, nuclear medicine pharmacies, federal and state jail pharmacies, mail order pharmacies, medical insurance companies, medical computer software companies, and drug manufacturing companies.
Learn more about the Pharmacy Technician Program at Mission College in the article "What do you know about Pharmacy Technicians?" (.pdf) featured in MISSIONmatters, the electronic newsletter for Mission College.
Program Overview
- This 30-week intensive program takes a very practical approach to pharmacy training, and is designed to prepare graduates for work in one of many pharmacy settings in short period of time.
- The program is excellent for recent high school graduates, college students, ex-healthcare workers, those looking for a career change, and any one who wants entry into the pharmacy or health fields.
- The curriculum is written by pharmacists, and classes are taught by both pharmacists and certified pharmacy technicians practicing in all areas of pharmacy.
- Students will receive 400 contact hours that include class and lab instruction, tutoring and workshop sessions, externship experiential training in a pharmacy.
- Graduates of the training program will receive a Certificate of Completion and eligibility for licensure (registration) by the CA State Board of Pharmacy.
