research project questions on Pharmacy Tech for my Pharmacy Tech class

[Ladyrina83]

I am currently studing to be a Pharmacy Tech and I am doing a research paper on Pharmacy Tech for my class and I had some questions about being a tech that I was wondering if anyone could answer them for me. If you cannot answer them all that is fine. Thank you for your time!

1. Which of these skills are very important or less important for the job? Reading, oral communications, writing, ability to work with others, mathematical.
2. How much contact do you have with the public?
3. What is your most fulfilling experience as a pharmacy technician?
4. Why did you choose pharmacy tech as your career?
5. Do you plan to further your education and become a pharmacist or something else?
6. Do pharmacists take advantage of their superior position and ask you to do menial tasks?
7. Do you feel you were prepared for this position with only an associate's degree?
8. Are you able to fill prescriptions and if so narcotics?
9. Why did you choose this type of pharmacy? Why not hospital technician or something else.
10. Have laws changed since you started practicing that has made it harder or easier to work?
11. What medicines are the most dangerous to work with?
12. Do people ever ask you to mix something illegal?
13. Is it hard keeping up with all the drug interactions?
14. How long have you been involved in this profession?
15. What is the most rewarding part about your job? What is the worst part about your job?
16. How often do you have to deal with a hostile customer?
17. How long did it take you to get through all your schooling?
18. What would be some good advice I should have before entering this profession?

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[owlegrad]

If I do this for you, will you do my therapy homework for me?

 

[lauradiddle]

1. Which of these skills are very important or less important for the job? Reading, oral communications, writing, ability to work with others, mathematical.
All of them are important. Some drug names are similar, so you have to read the script closely to make sure you're preparing the right one. You're going to have to communicate a lot with the pharmacists, patients, nurses, etc. so it's good to be effective at it. Math is pretty important in making sure your dose calculations are correct.

2. How much contact do you have with the public?
I work in a hospital, so it isn't much aside from occasionally giving directions to people around the hospital and talking to folks in the elevator. You'll get a lot more of it in retail though.

3. What is your most fulfilling experience as a pharmacy technician?
I've learned a lot, and it's really interesting to me. It made me want to pursue pharmacy school again.

4. Why did you choose pharmacy tech as your career?
I want to be a pharmacist, so what better way to get to know the field than a hands-on approach?

5. Do you plan to further your education and become a pharmacist or something else?
Yep, starting school this fall!

6. Do pharmacists take advantage of their superior position and ask you to do menial tasks?
Most pharmacists I work with treat techs as equals. After all, at least where I work, we both report to the same boss. I'm not going to lie though, some pharmacists do treat techs like they're inferior. They don't like when we question them on a dose or they'll refuse to answer the telephone even if it's the doctor they just paged or if the printer breaks, they expect us to fix it. I'd like to think they're in the minority though.

7. Do you feel you were prepared for this position with only an associate's degree?
In Texas it's not mandatory to have formal schooling to work as a pharmacy tech. Pretty much everything I know I learned on the job.

8. Are you able to fill prescriptions and if so narcotics?
I make IVs. We have a separate set of techs that work with narcotics.

9. Why did you choose this type of pharmacy? Why not hospital technician or something else.
I'm not sure I understand this question... was this only meant for retail techs?

10. Have laws changed since you started practicing that has made it harder or easier to work?
Texas just passed a law that allows techs to check another tech's work in certain hospital settings. It hasn't started in my department though so I haven't noticed a difference.

11. What medicines are the most dangerous to work with?
Well, the most dangerous I've personally worked with is chemo.

12. Do people ever ask you to mix something illegal?
No.

13. Is it hard keeping up with all the drug interactions?
I don't have to, at least right now. That's what a PharmD is for.

14. How long have you been involved in this profession?
Almost one and a half years.

15. What is the most rewarding part about your job? What is the worst part about your job?
I like that we play a key role in the pharmacy. It's a great job. If I could change one thing I think it would be to be taken more seriously by management.

16. How often do you have to deal with a hostile customer?
Never, just impatient nurses.

17. How long did it take you to get through all your schooling?
I assume you're asking about pharmacy tech schooling, and I've never attended a program. I just took the PTCE.

18. What would be some good advice I should have before entering this profession?
Pharmacy organizations aren't just for pharmacists. Make sure to join them to stay up to date on new laws and see how the field continues to evolve. And don't underestimate the power of networking!

 

[Ladyrina83]

thank you so much. and i meant to change number 9. lol. it was just supposed to say Why did you chose this type of pharmacy? the second part was meant for a Retail position.

 

[deleted129840]

1. Which of these skills are very important or less important for the job? Reading, oral communications, writing, ability to work with others, mathematical.

Oral communications is very important as you need to explain a lot of complicated situations to the people you work with and sometimes to customers. I would say mathematical is also important for certification and if you want to move into hospital work.

2. How much contact do you have with the public?

If you work retail you will have a lot.

3. What is your most fulfilling experience as a pharmacy technician?

The pharmacist sometimes has to handle situations where someone's health is really on the line and if you are a good tech you can keep the "retail" part of the store moving along while the pharmacist deals with doctors, nurses, keeping the patient calm, etc.

4. Why did you choose pharmacy tech as your career?

Not a real career, I am actually in another area of healthcare but I do it for extra money.

5. Do you plan to further your education and become a pharmacist or something else?

Yes, but I will probably not become a pharmacist due to declining job prospects in that field. Looking more towards the business end of things.

6. Do pharmacists take advantage of their superior position and ask you to do menial tasks?

It doesn't really work out that way if you work with good people--you understand why it's really not efficient for the pharmacist to do too much of the grunt work after going through 6+ years of schooling.

7. Do you feel you were prepared for this position with only an associate's degree?

Yes; however you will find it more fulfilling if you have aspirations to go further in healthcare. There are lots of different professions so you should look at them all.

8. Are you able to fill prescriptions and if so narcotics?

What happens with narcotics depends on the laws in your state, I believe.

9. Why did you choose this type of pharmacy? Why not hospital technician or something else.

I believe most techs start in retail as there are many more jobs there.

10. Have laws changed since you started practicing that has made it harder or easier to work?

Privacy practices have gotten more stringent but that is probably good and only a minor inconvenience. I think most customers are still pretty put out by the pseudoephedrine regulations though.

11. What medicines are the most dangerous to work with?

In a retail setting, you will sometimes encounter certain cancer drugs you should not touch. Clozapine also seems to kick up a lot of dust and I usually wipe down the tray and spatula after counting it.

12. Do people ever ask you to mix something illegal?

No, but you have to keep an eye out for people trying to get extra controlled substances in various inept ways.

13. Is it hard keeping up with all the drug interactions?

This is not really your job, that's left up to the pharmacist. Also, most computer systems will flag interactions, however there is a lot of skill involved in knowing which ones are the most serious and which might be important for a particular patient.

14. How long have you been involved in this profession?

3 years

15. What is the most rewarding part about your job? What is the worst part about your job?

Most rewarding--customer contact, all the crazy things that happen in the store
Least rewarding--pressure to crank out scripts in a hurry

16. How often do you have to deal with a hostile customer?

Maybe 2 or 3 times a week

17. How long did it take you to get through all your schooling?

I did not do a formal program but it took a couple of years to get certified.

18. What would be some good advice I should have before entering this profession?

I would think of it as a stepping stone rather than your final destination.

 

[lauradiddle]

thank you so much. and i meant to change number 9. lol. it was just supposed to say Why did you chose this type of pharmacy? the second part was meant for a Retail position.

No problem!

 

[rxlea]

Sorry, SDN is not for HW help.