Re: Pharm Tech School?

[Guest guest]

Do you have to go to a pharmacy tech school in order to become a pharm tech?  Do

you have to work under a pharmacist in order to become registered?

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

You do not have to go to pharm tech school IF your state does not require it.

However that being said, would you like your medications filled by someone who

has learned in a classroom setting AND performed MOCK labs in class AND who had

a LIVE on the JOB externship under the direction of a pharmacist to put into

practice what they have learned in school OR would you like someone who has only

read a book to fill your prescriptions?

If your state does not require formal education, and IF you can afford to go to

school I highly recommend it.

There are several online programs that are like/similar to reading and studying

from a good book, and others that have an interactive component to them which

increases comprehension and aids learning. These online programs range from $100

to $1500.

I personally recommend if you are not going to go to school, that you go to my

Files section,read my study guide book recommendations. Pick two books, purchase

new/used or check out from a library and use this FREE site to study. Also make

your own free interactive trade/generic flash cards and q/a on

www.studystack.com [lock your stacks so that others can not add to them, which

could make errors. Know that other stacks may have errors, study other stacks at

your own risk/check out each slide/card carefully for errors.]

States differ whether or not you must train under the direction of a pharmacist

for a specific number of hours or not. Schools will also vary in the number of

hours for an externship. Schools also vary whether or not they will find you an

externship site or if you have to find one.

You will need to know your state's laws and regulations regardng pharmacy

technician.

Hope this helps,

Respectfully,

Jeanetta Mastron CPhT BS

Pharm Tech Educator

Founder/Owner

>

> Do you have to go to a pharmacy tech school in order to become a pharm tech? 

Do you have to work under a pharmacist in order to become registered?

>

[Guest guest]

Jeanetta,

While I understand and respect your point-of-view, I have to say it depends on

the person and the situation. I did not have any schooling and I find that my

co-workers that have had schooling (or are in school now) know less then what I

know.

Sincerely,

________________________________

From: Jeanetta Mastron <rxjm2002@...>

Sent: Sat, February 19, 2011 6:34:23 PM

Subject: Re: Pharm Tech School?

 

Dear ,

You do not have to go to pharm tech school IF your state does not require it.

However that being said, would you like your medications filled by someone who

has learned in a classroom setting AND performed MOCK labs in class AND who had

a LIVE on the JOB externship under the direction of a pharmacist to put into

practice what they have learned in school OR would you like someone who has only

read a book to fill your prescriptions?

If your state does not require formal education, and IF you can afford to go to

school I highly recommend it.

There are several online programs that are like/similar to reading and studying

from a good book, and others that have an interactive component to them which

increases comprehension and aids learning. These online programs range from $100

to $1500.

I personally recommend if you are not going to go to school, that you go to my

Files section,read my study guide book recommendations. Pick two books, purchase

new/used or check out from a library and use this FREE site to study. Also make

your own free interactive trade/generic flash cards and q/a on

www.studystack.com [lock your stacks so that others can not add to them, which

could make errors. Know that other stacks may have errors, study other stacks at

your own risk/check out each slide/card carefully for errors.]

States differ whether or not you must train under the direction of a pharmacist

for a specific number of hours or not. Schools will also vary in the number of

hours for an externship. Schools also vary whether or not they will find you an

externship site or if you have to find one.

You will need to know your state's laws and regulations regardng pharmacy

technician.

Hope this helps,

Respectfully,

Jeanetta Mastron CPhT BS

Pharm Tech Educator

Founder/Owner

>

> Do you have to go to a pharmacy tech school in order to become a pharm tech? 

>Do you have to work under a pharmacist in order to become registered?

>

[Guest guest]

Dear Eika and All,

I respect your opinion as well. I suspect no matter what I write your opinion

will not be swayed, as it is YOUR experience which can not be denied. I have

debated this topic before on other sites over the years. I am a bit rusty on

debate as I hung it up a while back. That being said, I will write a bit of

how I argue this point to the government in trying to enact laws to require

pharm techs to go to school.

This is a sensitive area of discussion. There are MANY techs who are practicing

who came up through the ranks who did not attend school. They are fine and

efficient techs! They had to learn on the job and for the most part it took much

longer for them to learn the basics of pharmacy and pharmacology compared to how

and what I learned in school.

When I began my externship, what I learned in school could not compare to what

the techs with 5, 10 or 20 years experience new or were exposed to on the job.

Yet their lack of pharmacology blinded many of them to med errors that I was

able to discern. Of course the beginning stage of the schooled tech being

trained or externed vs the experienced stage of the on the job tech is not

tantamount. It is an unfair comparison. Apples and pineapples if you will.

Now I am schooled with 20+ years of experience I have been able to compare my

knowledge (not talking about abilities) with those of on the " job trained

only/not schooled " techs with 20 years of experience. In most cases, I am able

to discuss mechanism of action, duplication of therapy, adverse reactions,

pharmcogenomics, pharmacokinetics etc with much greater ability and detail than

my non-schooled counter parts. Comparitively when I was wet behind the ears,

the same techs ran rings around me. They knew so much I thought and they did.

More like they were able to do so much more, rather than knew so much more .

My statements in my previous post are broad in that if one were to hire someone

off the street and train them compared to hiring and training one who has

successfully completed a pharm tech program from a school that is accredited,

that the tech with the schooling would know more and be easier to train.

However, BOTH need training! One cannot expect either to come to a job and know

it all or to be able to do it all. YEARS of experience cannot compare to a 1 yr

program, nor can a person who graduated from a one year program compare to

someone with out any pharmacy background or knowledge at all. That would be the

same for ANY vocation or profession (dentist with 5 days experience vs a dentist

with 5 yrs or 10 yrs experience). Everyone needs a start. But a pharmacist or

technician does not have to hire someone who does not have any information or

background of pharmacy at all, when one can hire someone who has completed such

a program.

I would put my graduates up against ANY one coming in off the street ANY DAY. Is

that a fair match? I think not! Neither is comparing a person who graduated from

a program with an experience tech (such as yourself) when it comes to abilities

of dispensing.

But at some point, there is a leveling off of basic information learned on the

job versus what one learns in a classroom and the experienced gained putting

that into practice. It is at this point it much depends upon the person. In

this event you are right! If we compare a person who is trained on the job for

about 2 months and one coming out of school the " abilities " to fill a

perscription, count out drugs and label etc would most likely be the same.

However the person being trained on the job would lack pharmacology and the

ability to recognize drug duplications and drug interactions. They may not be as

quick to recognize a medication error.

There should be much similarity, at 6 months of on the job training for BOTH the

person off the street versus 6 months of on the job training of a person who

completed a tech program with an externship with the hope that the person with

the certificate of completion is still a bit better at recognizing drug

duplication of therapy and drug interactions with the gap closing up quickly.

One thing that has not been discussed is this: Interruptions and Distractions!

It is the number one factor in drug error sited by pharmacists who have to train

techs from off the street and is the number one reason why pharmacists have

thrown in the towel to start externing techs from schools with the hope of

hiring one who has completed a program as they are not as difficult to train

since there are less interruptions of Trade/generics, what is an enema,

suppository, suspension, basic operations etc By the time one completes a

program he or she should know what she/he can and can not say to a patient, what

a package insert is and that all hormones especially BCP should have them. What

a BPM is and why we call them and need them etc. One does not have to stop and

explain and if one does it is mainly to solidify what one has learned on the

job. Most grads are scared to death the first day to week on an externship

coupled with excitement. This does not mean that they do not have the knowledge

or do not understand. They are in 'aw' of the experienced tech who training

them. Also it is important to note that the schools and the states donot

consider the education and training process complete until the externship is

completed. So I am not sure if you were comparing your knowledge to one who

completed the program with the externship or without an externship being

completed.

You might want to read an excerpt form Medication Errors By

Cohen, American Pharmacists Association :

http://books.google.com/books?id=Gpj7ZaptUDcC & pg=PA33 & lpg=PA33 & dq=distractions+t\

o+pharmacists & source=bl & ots=i2ozFrsK-h & sig=8ORSqRoqdPW7-rtoh9j73Ne3-Ss & hl=en & ei=\

9TNjTfDYLI6osQOA_Oy-CA & sa=X & oi=book_result & ct=result & resnum=3 & sqi=2 & ved=0CCIQ6AE\

wAg - v=o]

If that site does not work try Googeling distractions to pharmacists

which yielded:

Medication errors by Cohen American Pharmacists Association 2007

680 pages in which he sites two video cameras recorded the pharmacists' and

technicians' work environment, and the tape was reviewed to count interruptions

and distractions. Guess what they found? Most of the interuptions were caused

by employees (techs) asking questions that they should have known the answer to

or did not. The most frequent types of distraction were by co-workers (techs

asking questions about prescriptions and procedures. And guess what else? As the

number of distractions rose the number of medications also rose.

In another study 45% of ALL errors were caused by interruptions and

distractions.

Interruptions and Distractions: Distractions account for 45 percent of

medication errors. (YES almost HALF!) The suggested solutions include areas with

minimized distractions, the use of visual cues (i.e. safety vests) and staff

education and awareness.

Notice STAFF education! Guess what they were NOT studying externs! But I am sure

trainees were involved since they are employees! Another reason NOT to higher

off the street, but rather one who has completed an externship and is somewhat

trained rather than one who is not trained at all..

At one Laguna Honda Hospital (another Pebble Project) designed their pharmacy

with the goal of improving several outcomes: reducing staff distractions and

interruptions, improving operational workflow and efficiency, and increasing

staff morale, recruitment and retention. The facility is currently under

construction, and the design features of the new space to achieve their

hypothesized outcomes include:

Interruptions and Distractions: Distract-ions account for 45 percent of

medication errors. The suggested solutions include areas with minimized

distractions, the use of visual cues (i.e. safety vests) and staff education and

awareness.

sound noise lighting etc were also discussed.

Part of the conclusion is:

" We cannot change the human condition but we can change the conditions under

which humans work " (Reason, 2000). Evidence-based design offers the opportunity

to draw upon the latest credible research to positively impact safety, the work

environment, and the patient experience, not just in hospitals and ambulatory

care clinics, but in pharmacies, as well.

The previous study was in l992

http://www.ajhp.org/cgi/content/abstract/56/13/1319 where as this study is

published JPSW May/June 2010

http://www.healthdesign.org/sites/default/files/news/CreatingSaferandMoreEfficie\

ntPharmaciesthroughEBD.pdf

In other data not on this site, after knowing this many pharmacists switched to

externing and hiring externs, than hiring off the street. This was done on

ambulatory care pharmacists where the distractions for rx reading and procedures

are higher.

Comparing a person off the street to a person who completed a tech program is

comparing an apple to an orange.

Comparing the trainability of a person off the street to another person off the

street IS comparing oranges to oranges, you can say it depends upon the

person. Here you would be absolutely right!

Now when comparing one extern to another extern that is definitely apple to

apple we will see diversity regarding implementing what one has learned in the

real world. You as one who trains them will also see that. You may hear a

pharmacist or tech say compared to the last extern we had this extern picks up

quickly. You must be comparing student at the SAME time in their program same

number of hours and courses completed. And it would be wise to compare same

school to same school since there is no standard for the education of pharm

techs (which is something that I am many other educators are working on).

Comparing DAY I of a tech who completed a tech program to one who is being

trained on DAY who is 'off the street' and it is like comparing an orange to

an apple. Not until weeks or months have passed with training has been saturated

and completed can we compare the two. And even then we would hope that the

formally educated one has more pharmceutical knowledge with tasks and duties and

abilities being equal.

" know less then what I know. " So are you saying knowledge on day one? Compared

to you an experienced tech? Then of course that is true. As that would not be a

fair comparison either. But if you are comparing a graduate from a tech program

on day one with a person off the street then that is not a fair comparison. BUT

the public has no clue that is what is being done! They have no clue that the

one person has to be trained 100% from scratch.

Well I am if I have not been able to convey my true point of view without

causing any hurt feelings, I truly have no other way of stating it.

I want to defend education, but not all education is equal either. My students

for example must do a poster session only after they have done many drug report

presentations and taken a grueling pharmacolgy class with me. I have had

numerous pharmacists see these poster sessions and posters and wonder why my

students are being taught pharmacology at this level and I have had so many more

pharmacists happy to hear of this because they feel my students catch more med

errors than students from other schools (their experience with my techs and

evidence based).

So while I agree people are not created equal and much depends upon the person,

much also depends upon the program/curriculum,, teacher and school. Likewise

MUCH depends upon WHAT and WHO and WHEN we are COMPARING abilities and/or

knowledge of a 'pharmacy tech' or " pharmacy student " .

Still betting on training grads/externs over training people off the street.

Still respecting your point of view.

Respectfully,

Jeanetta Mastron CPhT BS

Founder/Owner

Pharm Tech Educator

> >

> > Do you have to go to a pharmacy tech school in order to become a pharm

tech? 

> >Do you have to work under a pharmacist in order to become registered?

> >

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