Navigating the Pharmacy Technician Diploma: A Comprehensive Guide

The role of pharmacy technicians is vital in today's healthcare landscape, bridging the gap between patients and their medications under the supervision of a pharmacist. A Pharmacy Technician diploma program is designed to equip individuals with the foundational knowledge, practical skills, and real-world experience needed to excel in this dynamic field. This article delves into the details of pharmacy technician diploma courses, covering curriculum components, accreditation, career prospects, and key considerations for prospective students.

The Role of Pharmacy Technicians

Pharmacy technicians play an important role in helping people live healthier, happier, and more productive lives. Pharmacy technicians assist and support licensed pharmacists in providing healthcare to patients. They are essential to daily operations, especially with pharmacists taking on more direct patient care responsibilities.

Pharmacy technicians have been called pharmacy clinicians, pharmacy support personnel and various other titles, depending on their location. In all parts of the country, pharmacy technicians must have a broad knowledge of pharmacy practice and must be skilled in the techniques required to order, stock, package and prepare medications, but they do not need the advanced college education required of a licensed pharmacist.

Curriculum Overview: Building a Foundation for Success

A well-structured pharmacy technician diploma program covers a wide array of essential topics, blending theoretical knowledge with hands-on training. Emphasis is often placed on several key areas:

Pharmaceutical Calculations and Technology: Utilizing pharmaceutical calculations and current technology for safe medical dispensing while adhering legal, ethical, and professional standards in pharmacy practice.
Pharmacy Operations and Communication: Communicating and managing pharmacy operations. You will effectively interacting with patients, healthcare providers, and insurance companies. Additionally, you’ll perform clerical tasks such as inventory management and quality assurance.
Medical and Pharmaceutical Knowledge: Applying medical and pharmaceutical knowledge by understanding drug classifications, trade and generic names, and their applications. You will also learn medical terminology, pharmacology, and pathophysiology to ensure safe medication dispensing.
Patient Profiles and Inventory Management: The basics for updating and maintaining patient profiles, preparing insurance claims, labeling pharmaceutical products, managing inventory, and recognizing trade and generic drug names.
Safety and Compliance: Ensuring safety and compliance through proper collection, dispensing, and storing medications according to safety and legal regulations. You will also assist in prescription preparation, insurance processing, and pharmacy procedures under pharmacy law.
Sterile Compounding: A proficiency in the preparation of sterile parenteral products while adhering to industry safety and regulatory standards that are necessary to working in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and home healthcare settings. This includes training for the Compound Sterile Product Technician Certification through the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board to support roles in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and home healthcare settings.

Core Course Examples

Programs often incorporate specific modules to address key competencies. Examples of such modules include:

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Pharmacy Law: In these courses, you will be introduced to the legal duties and responsibilities of both the pharmacist and pharmacy technician.
Drug Fundamentals: Coursework in this class module is designed to provide you with an understanding of trade and generic names, pharmaceutical compounding, drug classifications, indications, dosages, routes of administration and side effects.
Pharmacology: These courses provide instruction in the various effects of drugs and the processes involved in pharmacokinetics.
Drug Distribution: Coursework in this class module is designed to provide you with an introduction to the language of pharmacy abbreviations.
IV Preparation: This course provides you with an understanding of the procedures, skills and techniques used in the preparation of sterile products for both hospital and home healthcare pharmacies.
Retail Pharmacy: These courses are designed to provide you with training in such procedures as filling prescriptions accurately, drug procurement, and third-party billing.

Specific Course Examples

Some programs include courses such as:

MED107 Medical Terminology
MED218 Communication for the Healthcare Professional
PTA110 Pharmacy Calculations for Technicians
PTA165 Pharmacy Law and Ethics
PTA176 Community Pharmacy Operation and Laboratory
PTA205 Pharmacology I for the Pharmacy Technician
PTA207 Pharmacology II for the Pharmacy Technician
PTA250 Pharmacy Software Applications
PTA276 Institutional Pharmacy Operation and Laboratory
PTA279 Community Pharmacy Technician Externship
PTA288 Pharmacy Tech Exam Success Class
ACC101 Principles of Accounting I
BUS125 Principles of Management
BUS224 Organizational Leadership
BUS225 Business Communications
BUS227 Human Resource Management
PHR 180 - Pharmacy Technician Orientation and Law
PHR 181 - Pharmacy Operations I with lab
PHR 185 - Pharmacology
SDV 108 - The College Experience
BIO 156 - Human Biology w/lab
PHR 182 - Pharmacy Operations II w/lab
PHR 183 - Pharmacy Calculations and Compounding w/lab
PHR 803 - Pharmacy Technician Internship I
MAP 129 - Medical Terminology
ENG 105 - Composition I
PHR 804 - Pharmacy Technician Internship II
PSY 111 - Introduction to Psychology
SOC 110 - Introduction to Sociology

Experiential Learning: Externships and Hands-On Training

Many programs incorporate an externship component, offering invaluable real-world experience. Studies are combined with an externship placement in a retail pharmacy or healthcare setting to reinforce the classroom and laboratory learning experiences. The externship course enables students to demonstrate and reinforce the knowledge and skills learned and practiced throughout the training program.

As part of your online pharmacy technician training, you’ll have the opportunity to apply what you learned in your courses to real-world situations in an externship. You’ll get to work alongside pharmacists and other pharmacy technicians to enhance your education at CVS, Walgreens, or Kroger. The externship is a minimum of 130 hours to be completed over 4 to 13 weeks at an approved community pharmacy near you. Successful completion of the externship is required to graduate.

Prior to students going on an extern site, they must complete 20 hours of work site professionalism curriculum. This content builds upon the students ability to work well with others, finalize their resume, improve interviewing skills, and manage their time on their externship site. Externs work under the direct supervision of qualified personnel at the externship site and under the supervision of College staff. Externs are evaluated by supervisory personnel and the evaluations are placed in the student’s permanent record.

Some programs also provide access to digital textbooks and the interactive learning experience includes hands-on learning and virtual exercises around processing a cash transaction, counting medication with prescription interpretation, and preparing medication for automated dispensing.

Accreditation: Ensuring Program Quality

Accreditation plays a crucial role in evaluating the quality and credibility of a pharmacy technician program. The pharmacy technician Associate’s degree and diploma programs at American National University are programmatically accredited by the Pharmacy Technician Accrediting Commission (PTAC), a collaboration between the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education.

In addition to ANU’s institutional accreditation from the Distance Education Accrediting Commission, the programmatic accreditation achieved by ANU’s pharmacy technician programs is a further validation of the quality of the program.

The Pharmacy Technician Professional Career Diploma Program is ASHP/ACPE accredited and is modeled against ASHP standards to ensure students are qualified to work in a range of environments.

About ASHPASHP represents pharmacists who serve as patient care providers in acute and ambulatory settings. The organization’s more than 40,000 members include pharmacists, student pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians. For over 70 years, ASHP has been at the forefront of efforts to improve medication use and enhance patient safety.

Certification and Licensure: Pathways to Professional Recognition

Licensure in Iowa may be obtained by passing any nationally accredited pharmacy technician certification exam. Currently, the PTCE (Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam) and the ExCPT (Exam for the Certification of Pharmacy Technicians) are nationally recognized certification exams. There are two parts to being a Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT). First, pharmacy technicians must sit for and pass the national PTCE or ExCPT. Once a pharmacy technician has passed the exam, he or she may use the designation CPhT. Second, to continue to hold the certification, a CPhT is required to obtain 20 hours of continuing education for recertification within two years of original certification.

In addition to the program outcomes listed, students will take the Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT) exam offered through the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board or National Healthcareers Association as part of PTA288 Pharmacy Tech Exam Success Class.

Upon completion of the Pharmacy Technician Professional Program, you will receive a diploma from Penn Foster and the program will have helped you prepare to sit for either of two industry certification exams: the PTCE certification exam or the ExCPT certification (offered through NHA). A voucher to cover the cost of the PTCE certification exam is included in your tuition.

PTCE Pass Rates for first time attempts: 48.4%

*Based on a total of 75 passes out of 108 total test takers enrolled in Penn Foster Group programs from January 2024 to September 2024 and 2 passes out of 2 total test takers between October 2024 and December 2024.

Career Opportunities: A Growing Field

Pharmacy technicians can find jobs in a variety of settings. Most commonly, they may find themselves working for a chain or local retail pharmacy. Employment opportunities include retail, hospitals, nursing homes, research laboratories, wholesale drug companies and pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities.

With increasing demand and projected growth in job opportunities, becoming a pharmacy technician can be a stable career path.

The most common place to work as a pharmacy technician is a retail pharmacy such as CVS, Kroger, or Walgreens, but there are several other environments available to those entering the field.

Employment for pharmacy technicians is projected to grow 6% by 2032, as pharmacists take on more direct patient care responsibilities. The demand for skilled professionals who complete a pharmacy technician certification program continues to grow. Employment for certified pharmacy technicians is projected to increase by 6% from 2022 to 2032, faster than the average for all occupations. With pharmacists taking on more direct patient care, pharmacy technicians are increasingly essential to daily operations.

Where can your diploma take you?

A retail pharmacy chain
A hospital
Your local pharmacy
A medical office

Average starting salary $24,036 (2010-2011 Placement Report).

Admission Requirements and Program Details

In order to enroll in pharmacy technician school, you’ll need a high school diploma or a GED and will need to be at least 17 years of age. Lewis University requires all students to take placement exams in English and Mathematics as part of the admission process.

Program Entry Requirements:

Complete an application for admission.
Attend any required information/registration session.
Submit to the Admissions Office evidence of high school graduation or GED completion.
Obtain minimum ALEKS math placement score of 30 or minimum ACT math score of 14.
Obtain minimum ACCUPLACER Sentence Skills score of 82 or minimum ACT writing score of 19 or show completion of ENG 105 Composition I.
Obtain minimum ACCUPLACER reading score of 73 or minimum ACT reading score of 19 or show completion of ENG 105 Composition I.
Completion of one year of high school algebra with a “C” or better or takeMAT 063 in their first semester.
Completion of one year of high school biology or chemistry or equivalent with a “C” or better is strongly recommended.

Fixed Costs:

Tuition……………………………………………………………………………………..$151.00 per credit

Varied Costs:

The Pharmacy Technician program utilizes a background check service, www.certifiedbackground.com, to conduct criminal background/abuse checks and to track immunizations, health records and CPR certification for each student after their acceptance into the program. Students are responsible for the cost of this service (approximately $58).

Key Skills and Attributes for Success

What Skills and Abilities Will You Need?

Perform activities in an organized and detailed manner.
Apply knowledge of mathematics and biological and social sciences.
Must have necessary physical and emotional stamina to meet demands of a rigorous schedule.
Must have self-discipline and ability to take initiative in resolving patient care problems.
Must be dependable and trustworthy.
Must be able to communicate, cooperate and work effectively as part of a team.

Important Considerations Before Enrolling

Licensing and/or certification requirements for jobs in certain fields are not the same in every state and may include educational, testing, and/or experiential requirements beyond those offered by your Penn Foster Program. You should contact the state professional licensing board or similar regulatory body in the state(s) where you plan to work to determine their requirements before enrolling in your program. See the State Licensing page for contact information for state licensing/regulatory boards and certain industry licensing information. This is particularly important for residents of the District of Columbia, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Washington. State boards may impose a variety of different requirements. These requirements vary from state to state. Before enrolling in the Penn Foster College Pharmacy Technician Professional Program, you should contact the State Board of Pharmacy to obtain the requirements applicable to pharmacy technicians in your state. Penn Foster has determined that the curriculum does not meet the educational requirements for licensure or certification in the following states: District of Columbia, Oklahoma and Washington. Contact information for State Boards of Pharmacy.

Illicit drug use, criminal background checks, and immunization status may prevent future employment as a pharmacy technician.

Clinical agencies require criminal background checks and/or drug screenings for students assigned to their facility for clinical education. Additionally, state or national registry and licensure boards may prohibit eligibility for certification or licensure based on criminal background records.

Status of No-Rehire at a Designated Clinical Affiliate: If you have been previously employed at a designated clinical site affiliated with the program and were released with a status of "No Rehire," you will not be eligible for clinical rotation at that facility or its affiliated sites.

Non-US residents: This is a United States-based institution with course materials that are geared toward US job and labor standards. Learners from outside of the US may find that some information and materials will differ from the current standards of their country. Due to externship requirements and other factors, students outside of the United States are not eligible to enroll in this program at this time.

In the state of Iowa, all pharmacy technician trainees are required to register with the Board by completing and submitting an application for registration within 30 days of accepting employment or internship in an Iowa pharmacy. Registration is necessary for the purposes of identification, tracking and disciplinary action.

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