Pharmacy technicians are multi-taskers and multi-talented. They are communicators, providing patients with quality customer service, conferring with other healthcare departments or organizations, not to mention the pharmacist (whose job they make so much easier). They are knowledgeable in their field and their roles of dispensing medications with 100% precision, maintaining inventory, updating electronic files and other functions, has a major impact on patient care and health.
It’s an understatement to say pharmacy technicians are important—they are vital. This in itself makes the career rewarding. Let’s hear from some other pharmacy techs about what else they find rewarding and why they love their career!
Reducing Financial Stress
Jahara Lynn Russell, who was profiled by Laura Humphrey on the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) website, became a CPhT (Certified Pharmacy Technician) in 2008. As of March 2013, she worked her way up to the position of Albert Einstein Medical Center’s Lead Pharmacy Technician.
Russell said about 70% of her job requires interviewing hospital patients before they are discharged ensuring they will be able to fill their prescriptions and transition as outpatients. She helps those who have financial limitations get connected to a social worker or get enrolled in the medical center’s assistance program. Humphrey wrote, “The most rewarding aspect of her job, she says, is knowing she is helping patients make successful transitions home from the hospital by ensuring they have the medications and instructions they need to avoid readmission.”
Inspired by the Company She Works For
Pharmacist Jason Poquette (BPharm, R.Ph.) interviewed Pharmacy Technician Cassie McIntyre (CPhT) on his pharmaceutical news site, The Honest Apothecary. McIntyre said she loved that pharmacy technicians can take their “career in so many directions,” from hospital and clinical settings to nuclear and compounding positions. At the time Poquette interviewed McIntyre (May 27, 2013), she had just started working for Correct Rx Pharmacy Services, a company founded in 2003 by Dr. Ellen Yankellow. McIntyre was inspired that Yankellow was able to start the company after leaving a partnership with little to no “money in her pocket.”
“Most people would lie in bed all day and cry after losing their livelihood, but not her,” said McIntyre. “The next day, she sat around her kitchen table with her two business partners and her CPA sister and drafted a business plan…One month after leaving that partnership, Correct Rx was up and running… Correct Rx is a closed door institutional pharmacy located in Linthicum, Maryland…They fill about 11,000 prescriptions per day for nearly 200,000 patients in correctional facilities across 32 states.”
Each pharmacy technician who loves their position will have their own personal take on what is most rewarding about their career, whether it is the opportunities for advancement, the patients they service, having the chance to always learn something new, and more!
What do you like most about being a pharmacy technician?
