Why Pharmacy Technicians Have No Clout and Little Pay

by spiritandenergy in Work, June 15, 2009

There are a variety of reasons pharmacy technicians have no clout and insufficient compensation and this article will concisely capture those main points.

Pharmacy technicians have no one Pharmacy Technician Association that represents them and lobby for better pay and more definition of upward mobility paths.

Education and skill level is not universal. There are Pharmacy Assistants with little formal training; sometimes they are High School students looking for a first job. There are pharmacy technicians who put in the 6 months or (whatever the state requirement is) and take a rather easy employer administered test and get a state license when they pay the state the fee.

There are pharmacy technicians who self –study the books or take an online class and pass one of the two National Pharmacy technician exams to become certified.

There are Pharmacy technicians who attend school-but curriculums are none standard.

There are pharmacy technicians who work in retail and ring up the register most of the day and answer the phone and maybe get involved in inventory. There are pharmacy technicians who work in mail order and bubble pack pills all day or take orders over the phone.

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There are pharmacy techs who work in home infusion and hospitals where there are more opportunities to work on Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPNs), IV’s and compounding at various levels. Some do all the ordering and inventory for the pharmacy.

There are specialized pharmacy techs who work with chemotherapy and radiopharmaceuticals. They no doubt are the most trained and regulated.

Education: Some pharmacy technicians have a GED, some a High school Diploma, some an A.S. or B.S. and some a master degree.

The point I am making is, it is not like LPN’s, dental assistants, X-Ray technicians, and Laboratory technicians- there are no strict criteria and no routes to advancement. An LPN can step up to and R.N. and R.N. can step up to a B.S. in nursing.

Pharmacy technicians have no lobbying agent like Pharmacists do. Some Pharmacist themselves subtly resent that pharmacy technicians can count pills as well as they can.

Until standards of education get more consistent, job titles differentiate the responsibilities and compensation is commensurate we are likely to see no dramatic improvement in upward mobility for pharmacy technicians.