Are you interested in a healthcare career but aren’t sure you want to provide hands-on medical care? If so, working as a pharmacy technician could be a great career fit! You’ll interact with patients, but you typically won’t perform tasks that involve direct patient care. Pharmacy technician responsibilities are broad, ranging from filling prescriptions to processing insurance claims, answering questions, updating medical records, and more. Read on to find out what Pharmacy Technicians actually do!

What Pharmacy Technicians Do in a Workday

As a pharmacy technician, you might work in a traditional drug store like CVS, a supermarket pharmacy, a hospital, or a long-term care facility. Your pharmacy technician job description will differ slightly depending on where you work.

For example, if you work in a CVS or Walgreens, you’ll interact with many patients throughout the day, answer phones, collect payment and fill prescriptions. In a hospital, you might restock medicine cabinets, mix IV fluids and deliver medications to nursing stations. About half of all pharmacy technicians work in a pharmacy or drug store, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Other workplaces for pharmacy technicians include mail-order hubs and special compounding labs.

Core Pharmacy Technician Responsibilities

Most pharmacy technician responsibilities involve safely preparing medications. You may perform tasks such as:

• Select the correct drugs and ensure the National Drug Code (NDC) numbers match the written order.
• Double-check for similar-sounding drugs to prevent mistakes.
• Count pills and place them in pill containers.
• Measure liquid medications and pour them into bottles.
• Package and label drugs.
• Pass drugs over to the pharmacist for a final verification check.

You’ll always work under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist. Only a pharmacist can answer patient questions about drug side effects, over-the-counter drug recommendations, and “how to” advice about taking a medication.

Here’s a breakdown of additional pharmacy technician responsibilities:

Patient-Facing Responsibilities

As a pharmacy tech in a retail setting (drug store, supermarket, Target, etc.), you’ll do tasks such as:

• Greet patients, collect prescriptions, verify patient identity, and confirm insurance coverage.
• Ask patients about drug allergies and health history and update their records.
• Answer the phone and route medical questions to the pharmacist when necessary.
• Answer questions such as where to find over-the-counter medications or first aid supplies.
• Give patients their prescriptions, collect signatures, and collect payments.

In a hospital or long-term care facility, you may have responsibilities such as:

• Conduct bedside interviews with newly admitted patients or family members about current medications.
• Deliver drugs to nursing staff.
• Bring prescriptions to patients right before they are discharged.

Administrative and Operational Duties

In a retail setting, you’ll have tasks such as:

• Contact doctors’ offices for refill authorizations, ask about drug alternatives for insurance reasons or to clarify handwritten information.
• Manage HIPAA and prescription paperwork, and ensure all activities comply with laws and regulations.
• Monitor daily drug stock levels, unpack deliveries, and replenish stocks.
• Rotate stock and check for expired drugs.
• Handle billing and insurance claims.

In a hospital or long-term care facility, you’ll have tasks such as:

• Restock automated medicine supply cabinets and carts.
• Research logs when dispensed drug counts don’t match orders.
• Check for expired drugs on medication carts and cabinets.
• Repackage bulk drugs into individual doses.

Skills and Qualities That Make a Great Pharmacy Technician

Many people can handle most pharmacy technician responsibilities. However, to succeed and move into leadership roles, a few skills will help you stand out! If you excel in any of these areas, you’ll likely do well as a pharmacy technician:

• Strong math skills: You’ll be calculating drug dosages, mixing ingredients, and converting measurements (which you’ll learn how to do in your training).
• Attention to detail: This is essential for a pharmacy technician because you’ll need to catch prescription errors, miscounts, and mismatched NDC barcodes.
• Good memory: You’ll be handling hundreds of drugs, so being able to quickly memorize drug names and their generic counterparts will help you be more efficient.
• Tenacity: Insurance companies often reject drug claims due to minor issues, so you’ll need to troubleshoot solutions with insurers so patients can afford their drugs.
• Integrity: Handling drugs, particularly narcotics and other controlled substances, requires honesty and ethics.
• Handle stress in a fast-paced setting: Pharmacies often experience “rush hours” at specific times throughout the day, so you may be answering phones, helping patients at the window and trying to fill prescriptions at the same time. You may need to act fast to deliver drugs during a hospital emergency.

Pharmacy Technician May Be a Role Worth Pursuing!

A career as a pharmacy technician offers many benefits, particularly if you want to work in healthcare but don’t want to work in direct patient care roles like nursing or dentistry. A pharmacy technician career offers these key benefits:

• Job Stability: Healthcare careers tend to be in demand, especially as the population ages and needs more medical care. In Michigan, pharmacy technician jobs are expected to grow faster than average, at about 5% to 6%. Demand for prescription drugs remains steady, even during economic downturns.
• Fast Track to Earning Money: Unlike many healthcare careers that require years of school, you can become a pharmacy technician in less than a year!
• Competitive Wages: In Michigan, pharmacy technicians earn between $17.04 and $26.32 per hour, or $35,430 to $54,740 annually. Keep in mind though; these are just the averages of all Pharmacy Technicians. How much you may earn will vary based on a number of factors such as where you work, how much experience you have, the duties you perform, etc.
• Professional Work Environment: You’ll work alongside highly educated professionals in a clean medical setting.
• Multiple Workplace Opportunities: While about half of pharmacy technicians work in retail pharmacies like CVS, you could also work in hospitals, mail order hubs, long-term care facilities or specialty labs.
• Schedule Flexibility: Hospitals operate around the clock, and many pharmacies are open late or 24 hours. Pharmacies are also typically open 7 days a week. You’re not locked into working only on weekdays if you prefer evenings or weekends.

If you are ready to explore Pharmacy Technician training, check out Dorsey College’s program! The program takes place in virtual classrooms and on campus labs, giving you hands-on experience and flexibility. This can make it even easier for students to complete the program, which takes less than a year.

Dorsey College has determined that its Pharmacy Technician training curriculum is sufficient to fulfill educational requirements for licensure in the State of Michigan only. No educational determinations have been made for any other state, district or US territory in regards to licensure requirements.