Pharmacy technician – The Path Ahead
The role of a pharmacy technician is a vital one in the delivery of high quality pharmaceutical care. Every day in the UK, over 1.3 million people visit a pharmacy seeking a range of healthcare services and products, not least the collection of their prescribed medicines. Completing a pharmacy technician training programme can start you on a fulfilling career journey that will adapt and flex to suit your aspirations.
Pharmacy technician training programme
Pharmacy technicians are registered healthcare professionals in their own right and are regulated by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) separately to pharmacists. Every pharmacy technician must be registered to receive their license to practice and the title ‘Pharmacy technician’ is protected in law. You cannot claim to be one unless you are registered. To be registered you must demonstrate and maintain the professional standards set by the GPhC. To start your journey you must complete a nationally recognised training programme.
It is a great achievement to complete a pharmacy technician training programme and become registered as a healthcare professional. You can learn more about what is involved from our article here. While it is achievable by many who put their mind to it, it is a challenge and is something to be proud of when you reach your goal.
If you’d like to have a look at our pharmacy technician training programme it’s here. You can purchase the course here.
The Path Ahead
Committing yourself to completing the training involved can be daunting, so it is good to understand how you can hope to benefit. Pharmacy technicians work alongside the pharmacist in community pharmacies to help deliver a range of medicines supply and clinical services to patients. They are one of the key members of the pharmacy team and as a result provide technical expertise as well as practical support in the dispensary, ensuring that prescriptions are dispensed safely, efficiently and that the whole process is managed well. More and more pharmacy technicians are involved in the delivery of the expanding range of clinical services like diagnostics testing, vaccinations and support for patients with long term conditions. In some cases, Pharmacy technicians are the people developing and leading these new services.
What sort of healthcare services would you like to see offered from your pharmacy? Complete your Pharmacy technician training programme and you may just be one step closer to making it a reality.
Settings
Pharmacy technicians work in a range of settings only one of which is community pharmacy. Wherever medicines are supplied or managed you can find a pharmacy technician so if you are looking for a change of setting and would like to broaden your experience this is a good step. Pharmacy technicians can work in hospital pharmacy, primary care (GP surgeries, NHS teams etc), the prison service, the armed forces, the pharmaceutical industry and mental health.
The opportunities are wide and completing a pharmacy technician training programme can help you open doors to new career paths.
Further learning
Pharmacy technicians can also undertake further training to become accredited checking technicians and to enable them to complete the final accuracy check in the dispensing process thereby deepening further still their involvement in the dispensing process.
Membership
Becoming a pharmacy technician is a big step and makes you a professional recognised nationally. The Association of Pharmacy Technicians is the professional leadership body for pharmacy technicians and works on its members behalf to promote and broaden the contribution made by pharmacy technicians across the UK.
If you are on your way towards completing a pharmacy technician training programme or you would like to get started but you have some questions then don’t be shy. Get in touch whichever way suits you and we’ll happily answer your questions. We are always happy to talk training. Remember, the only silly question is the one you don’t ask…