IV Certification

[2badr]

Hi! I have 2 question for you all. I would appreciate any help you could give me.

1. How does a pharmacy technician become "IV" certified? Is it offered as on the job training after certification as a Pharmacy Technician?

2. What are the prospects for Clinical Pharmacists? Are the salaries comparable to other specialties in pharmacy? Also, I have noticed that the jobs for Clinical Pharmacy seem to be limited to certain areas of the country. Do you see this changing in the near future?

Thanks in advance!

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[baggywrinkle]

Back in the day, all you needed to work in an IV room was to find a pharmacist willing to train you. But with the trend toward technician certification and even licensure in some states this is changing. When I left Texas there were noises about requiring a course in aseptic technique which amounted to watching some videos and completing a short test on-the- job. It varies widely state to state and you will need to check the requirements - if any
in your state of residence. At present, in Florida and Colorado there are no formal requirements and training will be department based. In a state such as Washington, however, where you must go to school to become a pharmacy technician licensed to practice I suspect the requirements will be more formal and part of your schooling.

The guiding body behind the trends and state legislation is www.ASHP.org if all else fails locally contact them. But do check before you get roped in to some expensive course that you may not need.

Don't sweat it, it is not a big deal. Just do not stab your instructer while manipulating the syringe - it reflects poorly on your grade

to the second question. Depends on what you mean by clinical. If you are talking about coffee drinking journal readers the prospects are slim and competitive. If you are talking about a bench pharmacist in hospital who as part of his duties does clinical stuff the prospects are good.

yes, yes, and no.

 

[2badr]

Thanks for the reply! I'm taking the certification exam this March. (You can work on-the-job w/o certification for only a year.)

It is now a state requirement that all pharm techs have certification. I'm going to look around a little more and see if I can get some on-the-job training before I empty my wallet.

By "Clinical" I mean more patient interaction/contact. I don't think the bench would keep me happy too long.

 

[baggywrinkle]

Originally posted by 2badr


By "Clinical" I mean more patient interaction/contact. I don't think the bench would keep me happy too long.

In two out of the last three hospital jobs I have had, the bench pharmacists were doing coumadin counseling of inpatients prior to
discharge. One of them was counseling their home health patient population. It was the bench guys doing this work along with pharmacokinetic monitoring. In those two hospitals pharmacists were up on the floor entering orders and trouble shooting so it was no big deal to run into a patients room to counsel someone and you had ready access to nurses charts and physicians. There was a rotation of positions, so you might do the floor a few days then be in the central pharmacy a few days checking carts or preparing IV's. In the larger of the two hospitals there was a surgery satellite which babied the anesthesiologists and surgeons. That was a cool position because you gowned up and actually ran the stuff you made into the sugery suites as they needed it.

The third hospital was centralized and was just a mess. Halifax Hospital of Daytona Beach. You never saw anyone and did all your work over the phone. At one time they also were decentralized but there were problems with pharmacists leaving work and going shopping.... Even this train wreck of a hospital had a surgery satellite and a satellite for the oncology clinic. More Chemo than you could shake a stick at.

In all three hospitals there was only one pharmacist who was purely "clinical" in function filling my definition of a coffee drinking journal reader. He had a masters degree in pharmacy with a specialization in nutrition and was in charge of running the pharmacy end of the parenteral nutrition program and pharmacokinetics program. He was more of a liason between pharmacy and the medical/nursing staffs than what you are describing. Not much patient contact going on there but lots and lots of jaw flapping. Dare I expose my bias by saying he couldn't be troubled to dirty his hands doing real work....I'm sure he did do important stuff - but what it was was a mystery to me.

Don't let my bias poison your mind. But don't turn up your nose at the bench either. Come time to cut jobs I would much rather be working the bench than drinking coffee.....