The Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK)
Career Leaflet: Pharmacy Technicians
Pharmacy: the art or practice of preparing, compounding and dispensing drugs or medicines according to prescriptions of prescribers.
Do you like helping people? Do you like talking to people? Are you interested in health and science? Would you like to help ill and sick people understand more about their medicines? If you answer yes to any of these questions, then you may like to consider becoming a Pharmacy Technician, as a career choice.
What is a Pharmacy Technician?
Pharmacy Technicians are skilled and essential members of the pharmacy team, who prepare, dispense, supply and issue a wide range and variety of medicines to patients.
The Pharmacy team is made up of Pharmacists and Pharmacy Support Staff, which includes Pharmacy Technicians, Pharmacy Assistants, and in community pharmacies, Medicines Counter Assistants. Pharmacy Support Staff work under the supervision of registered pharmacists. However, Pharmacy Technicians remain responsible for their own safe and accurate practice.
Where can a Pharmacy Technician Work?
Pharmacy technicians can work in a variety of areas including hospital, community, primary care, prison service, armed forces and industry.
Community Pharmacy
Community pharmacy technicians work in retail pharmacies, such as chemist shops in the high street. They undertake a wide range of tasks which include:
· Reading prescriptions, labelling and dispensing prescribed medicines.
· Calculating quantities and doses of medicines
· Providing information and advice to patients on how to use their medication.
· Advising members of the public about over the counter medicines and management of minor ailments.
· Selling over-the-counter medicines and other items stocked by the chemist.
· Manufacturing basic ointments and mixtures by making simple dilutions
· Stock procurement and control.
· Maintaining individual records of patient’s prescriptions, usually using the pharmacy computer system.
Hospital Pharmacy
The work in hospital pharmacy, though similar to the community sector, can be more varied. There are different opportunities for career development.
In addition to the tasks listed above that the community pharmacy technicians undertake the hospital pharmacy technicians are involved in:
· Manufacturing of sterile and non sterile products or medicines often from raw materials
· Manufacture of chemotherapy cancer treatments
· Providing medicines information to healthcare professionals and the public
· Medicines management on the hospital wards
· Training, supervising and assessing junior staff and trainees
· Quality control of manufactured medicines
· Dispensing and arranging Clinical Trail medicines
Primary Care/Prisons/Armed Forces
Pharmacy Technicians working in the Prison Service and the Armed Forces perform similar roles to pharmacy technicians working in community pharmacies. They would be involved in supplying medicines to patients within a medicines management role. However, the environment in which they do it and the patients can be very different. Pharmacy technicians working in primary care are most often involved in prescribing audits within GP Practices.
How do you become a Pharmacy Technician?
You will need to find employment as a Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technician. Many hospital pharmacy departments run training programmes that usually last for 2 years. These are generally advertised in the spring/summer in either local press publications, local hospital trust websites or on NHS jobs and they usually start in the autumn. Community pharmacies, the chemist shop in the high street, also employ trainees.
Once you are working as a trainee pharmacy technician, you will receive on-the-job training from your employer, which will be combined with working towards a national qualification. This consists of a:
· Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Pharmacy Service Skills (QCF)
plus
· An accredited underpinning knowledge course or a Technical Certificate such as Level 3 Diploma in Pharmaceutical Science
The knowledge course will either be studied, as day-release or block release, at a local college or by distance learning depending on the employer. You will study a variety of topics such as human physiology, disease management, actions and uses of medicines, pharmacy manufacturing and pharmacy law.
For the QCF in Pharmacy Service Skills you will produce a portfolio of work related evidence that demonstrates how you work within the pharmacy setting and how you apply pharmacy knowledge.
The Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technician could be a healthcare apprentice working within an advanced apprenticeship. For more information visit: http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/about-us/~/media/Resource-Library/PDF/Pharmacy-Qualification-update.ashx
What qualifications do you need to apply for a Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technician post?
You will usually need four or five GCSEs (A-C) to start this qualification to include English, Maths, and 2 x Science subjects, although this depends on the recruiting employer.
Team working and the ability to communicate well is also essential as is the need to be accurate, careful, dedicated and reliable. It is necessary to be good at dealing with people and have the ability to explain things simply to other professional staff and patients. Information technology skills would also be advantageous.
What career pathways are there for Pharmacy Technicians?
Many pharmacy technicians in all pharmacy settings are extending their roles to work with pharmacists and other healthcare staff in helping patients to manage their medicines. These specialist roles involve checking and recording the medication that patients should be taking, ensuring sufficient supplies, and helping patients to understand how to use their medicines safely on the hospital wards, and when they return home. Pharmacy Technicians can also take addition training and assessment to allow them to perform the final accuracy check of prescriptions before being issued to the patient. In hospital and industry pharmacy technicians manage the technical aspects of dispensing services and manufacturing medicines.
In the hospital service, there are several grades for qualified pharmacy technicians, based on the NHS grading criteria ‘Agenda for Change. Grading criteria ranges from Band 4 to Band 7 undertaking roles explained by the national pharmacy technician profiles which can be found on http://www.nhsemployers.org/PayAndContracts/AgendaForChange/Pages/Afc-Homepage.aspx
Professional registration
Statutory registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) came into force on the 1st July 2011, and all technicians need to have the QCF Level 3 in Pharmacy Service Skills and an accredited knowledge course plus relevant pharmacy experience to practise as a Pharmacy Technician. See the GPhC website for details: www.pharmacyregulation.org
Published by: The Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK, One Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BD. www.aptuk.org