What are the advantages of becoming a pharmacy assistant?

Individuals who are not interested in becoming doctors or surgeons they have other great options in medical field like becoming of pharmacist or a pharmacy aide.
Basically, they are the ones who dispense medication to the patients. Apart from this they even look after various administrative, as well as support duties. So, if you aspire to take up pharmacy assistant profile then you must have a glance over the advantages of becoming a pharmacy aide:

• Quick schooling: Usually, most of the medical fields have long schooling time period. But pharmacy is one such field that is provides quick schooling to an individual. Thus students need not have to wait for years to start a professional career and earn a good salary. Though there are various colleges that provide degree for this field but nowadays students have another good option besides colleges i.e. training institutes. Such institutes have same curriculum as that of colleges and they make sure to grant classroom, as well as hands on training session to the students.
• Higher wages: Likewise doctors and surgeons earn good salary; pharmacy assistants can also expect the same from their job profile. Thus on the whole, assistants have great opportunities to earn a handsome salary package from their job.
• Greater work opportunities: A pharmacist or a pharmacy aide is not just restricted to work in hospitals, clinics or pharmacy shop; rather they can work in different fields, as well. Let’s have a look on all the fields in, which they can work:

1. Home health care pharmacist: They are the ones who work for the patients who cannot travel to pharmacy shop and get the needful medications
2. Hospital pharmacist: They work under doctors in the hospitals. Their main task is to distribute medications to the patients as prescribed by the doctor.
3. Nuclear pharmacists: They too work in hospitals but under different working conditions. Their prime job is to use radioactive drugs to treat cancer.
4. Veterinary pharmacy aide: Many pharmacist or aide who love animals they gets an opportunity to treat pets, as well. They would have to provide medications to the veterinary doctor.
5. Psychiatric aide: To provide medications to the patients who have mental disorders, pharmacy aides and specialists are too trained in this field.

With the increasing demand for the need for medical care people, many health care centers look for those candidates who are not just qualified in one field, rather have some knowledge regarding other medical fields too. For example, apart from gaining excellence in the field of pharmacy, a pharmacist is expected to have gone through certified nurse training program. This would help them in managing the work flow of the hospital or clinic.

What is the role of pharmacy technicians in the medical industry?

Due to increase in number of medical facilities, the demand of pharmaceutical technicians is also growing, day by day. Therefore, increase in job opportunists has turned many students towards this profession. If you are interested to make your career in this rapidly growing medical field, this article will help you understanding the various important aspects about the secure and economic pharmacy career.

Pharmacy assistant (PA), sometimes referred to as pharmacy tech, pharmaceutical technician or pharmacy aide, is a person who offer several types of pharmacy related services (we will discuss later in this article) under the direct supervision of licensed pharmacist.

The greater percentage of pharmaceutical assistants provide services in retail pharmacies including department stores, mass retail outlets, chained and independent drugstores. Rest of the professionals works in clinical and hospital pharmacies.

General role: Pharmaceutical technician assist licensed pharmacists in numerous tasks like provide medications and other prescribed products to customers by counting pills, tablets, measuring solutions, and bottling them. Besides this, PAs also handle administrative tasks including answering phone calls, providing information to the patients regarding use of medications as prescribed by the physician.

Prescription Verification: Pharmaceutical technicians receive written prescriptions from customers from medical practitioners through a physical messenger or via telephone. In addition to this, a PA verifies that the received request is accurate and complete.

Prescription Preparation: After verification of prescription, pharmaceutical assistant sort and pack tables and pills, mix and bottle liquid medications, attach labels to prescriptions.

Office Administration: Pharmacy assistants maintain patients’ histories and their prescription records. In addition to this, depending upon the facility they work, pharmacy techs prepare medical claim forms; maintain records of the billing information in the offices’ record keeping system, take care of medication stock requirement and supplies.

Therefore, is you are considering the field of pharmacy assistant as your career; you are definitely on the right track. However, there are numerous job opportunities in this medical field, the most sought after individuals are trained pharmaceutical assistants.

Although PA training is not mandatory, it is huge advantageous. As in any field, trained professionals are preferred over others. Pharmacy assistant training programs prepare students to be a full-fledged pharmaceutical techs having complete knowledge of variety of medications and efficiency to handle different types of administrative and clerical tasks. Students can get training from accredited schools, community colleges, or from vocational colleges that offer formal PA education programs.

Subscribe to our articles about pharmacy assistant training and jobs .