How To Become A Good Pharmacy Technician?

There are seven characteristics that have been shown to make a good pharmacy technician.

1. Skills in providing service to customers The majority of a Pharmacy Technician’s shift is dedicated to interacting with consumers.
2. Detail Oriented.
3. Listening Skills.
4. Mathematical Skills
5. Skills in organizational management.
6. Multi-tasking Ability.
7. Reasonable Judgment

How do pharmacy technicians count pills faster?

Being a pharmacy technician is not always an easy job. Being a pharmacy technician is not always an easy job. Simply having to deal with 24/7 customer service is enough to drive techs insane. Drive-thrus have a reputation for being stressful. When you factor in all of the other minor annoyances that only working at a pharmacy can provide, it may truly put a tech’s patience to the test.

1. Here are some of the greatest hacks for pharmacy technicians that can be found on the internet in light of the forthcoming shifts in the world of pharmacy technology.
2. Some of these hacks are straightforward, while others need more creativity.
3. The following twenty tips can help technicians save time and possibly their sanity: 1.

To remove desiccant from bottles, make use of a pair of hobby tweezers by bending the tips of the tweezers.2. On the side of large-count bottles, jot down the number of tablets that are still available. And make sure that all of your other coworkers do the same thing.

1. This will only be successful if everyone participates.3.
2. Instead of immediately scooping the pills into the pill counter, wait a moment before beginning the double-counting process.
3. Instead, slide them away from the other pills one row at a time, five at a time, to the edge of the platform for your first count.

After that, transfer them to the lower section one group of five at a time for your second count.4. Hospital technicians, you are required to provide incoming interns and residents with your personal mobile phone number. Request that they send you a text message instead of paging you.

1. When compared to the trouble of responding to a website, sending a text message in response to a message received is significantly simpler.5.
2. To prevent rolls of auxiliary labels from unraveling, secure them with a zip tie.6.
3. If your state offers more than one kind of Medicaid plan, you are required to make a copy of each patient’s card and maintain it in your files; however, any protected health information (PHI) must first be removed.

If a Medicaid patient forgets his or her card, all you will need to know in order to execute the script is the patient’s identification number and the name of the plan they are enrolled in.7. Before affixing labels to boxes, practice first by attaching them to the palm of your hand.

In the event that you have to put the medication back into stock, they will be considerably simpler to remove from the packaging.8. Before applying the label to a box, fold one of the corners of the label back on itself. In the event that it is vital, this will make it far simpler to peel off.9. When calculating the remaining 28 days for the multi-dose vial’s expiration date, just deduct 2 or 3 from the current date.

It is dependent on the total number of days in the month as to whether or not you take away 2 or 3.10. Before putting an item back into stock, cover the item’s label with a piece of label tape and use your fingernail to scrape any portions of the item that contain PHI.

1. When you remove the tape, the personally identifiable information will be discarded.11.
2. At the beginning of your shift, make your way through the line and print down all of the prescriptions that are straightforward to fill (birth control, inhalers, and drugs that come in stock bottles).
3. Take care of these things first.12.

Move down the line of patients until you discover those who are getting their prescriptions for the same drug renewed. It will save you time if you do the refills one after the other.13. If you are completing prescriptions, you should print in batches.

• Because of this, you won’t be need to wait for the printer.14.
• When you acquire a new generic, put the green auxiliary label that was on the stock bottle on the new bottle.
• The filling tech will be reminded by this to additionally place a green sticker on the bottle that the patient is using.15.
• Those patients who have many prescriptions to be filled first thing in the morning should have their orders printed out.

First, fill them up so that they may be moved out of the way.16. If patients phone in for refills, you should inform them that it will take at least an hour to process their request. They shouldn’t be turned into waiters.17. When preparing IVs, use spikes for both the bag and the vial.18.

• When you are reconstituting the daptomycin (also known as Cubicin), direct the needle so that it is pointing at the wall of the vial.19.
• To create drips that can be readily dissolved, use needles that have two ends.20.
• To cover up personal health information (PHI) on the Return to Stock labels, use a lighter (at your own risk!).

We hope that by utilizing these tips and tricks, we will be able to make life a little bit simpler at the pharmacy. If there is anything that I have overlooked, do let me know by messaging me on Twitter (my handle is @pharmschoolhq).

How do you calculate pill count?

Methods: ARBITER 2 was a prospective, double-blind, randomized clinical trial that compared the efficacy of extended-release prescription niacin (Niaspan ®, Kos Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cranbury, NJ) and matching placebo on the rate of atherosclerosis progression.

The trial was conducted by Kos Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cranbury, New Jersey. The research was carried out during the months of December 2001 and May 2004. All of the patients in the study were required to have a preexisting diagnosis of coronary heart disease and to be currently taking a statin medication prior to enrolling in the study.

Furthermore, the patients were required to keep taking their statin medication for the entire duration of the study. The investigation was carried out at Walter Reed Army Medical Facility, which is a tertiary medical center, and the institution’s Department of Clinical Investigation gave its clearance to the trial’s methodology.

1. Consent, both oral and written, was given by every single participant.
2. The medicine for the study was dispensed by a designated research pharmacy.
3. This pharmacy is responsible for managing all pharmaceuticals that are delivered for authorized protocols.
4. Along with the rest of the participant’s medicines, statin treatment was provided by the facility’s primary outpatient pharmacy as well.

Simvastatin was the primary statin offered by the Department of Defense and was utilized by the great majority (93%) of patients in the research. Atorvastatin was the medication prescribed to the remaining patients. According to the protocol of the trial, each participant had a scheduled appointment with one of the six clinical pharmacists in order to undergo planned adherence evaluations about their study medicine and statin prescription.

• Following an initial consultation at 30 days, the 148 patients who participated in the research underwent adherence evaluations at 90, 180, 270, and 365 days.
• Of these individuals, 14 (9.5%) failed to bring the bottles of statin medication that they were prescribed to their study visit (but did partake in study drug pill counts).

These participants are not included in some analyses since it has been highlighted. It was emphasized to the participants that their prescription bottles should accompany them to each appointment. The quantity of pills actually consumed was used to determine the pill counts (the number of pills dispensed – the number of pills counted).

• The number of pills that were anticipated to have been consumed was determined by multiplying the daily dose (half a tablet, one tablet, or two tablets) by the number of days that had passed since the medication was originally delivered.
• We defined effective adherence on pill counts as taking 85–100% of the tablets throughout each follow-up period in accordance with our a priori and stringent criteria ( Krueger et al 2003 ).

Adherence per drug use by twenty-four hour recall was evaluated based on the patient’s verbal response (from memory or with the aid of a personal medication list) of all of the chronic medications taken (including the study medication and statin medications) within the previous twenty-four hours prior to each pharmacy visit.

• This was done in order to evaluate the patient’s level of adherence to the prescribed dosage of each medication.
• According to the twenty-four hour recall, we judged the patients to be adhering to their treatment plan if they were able to report taking all of their chronic drugs as prescribed.
• Adherence per refill history was established by analyzing the electronic pharmacy record system (Composite Health Care System, CHCS) to quantify the quantity of tablets distributed in relation to the passage of time.

This was done in order to determine patient adherence. Adherence was determined if all of the patient’s refills for chronic medications were in line with the number of days that the pharmacy distributed the prescription for, and this number was always within 90 days.

• The statins and other research drugs were provided to each and every patient by the military health care system.
• Throughout the course of the research project, each of the 148 people who took part in it was examined and given an interview at a Pharmacy Outcomes Clinic at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (up to 1 year).

Pharmacists working in the clinic were given training in both the adherence evaluation and the documenting of patient medication compliance. Data were obtained using a specialized form for data collection, which included written reminders about adherence evaluation methodologies and criteria of adherence.

1. In order to reduce the likelihood of differences in opinion amongst raters, the participating pharmacists went through the process of reviewing and debating a data dictionary as a group.
2. At the conclusion of each visit, any unused study medicine was collected, transported to the research pharmacy, and replaced with a fresh supply of the required medication.

This guaranteed that the precise beginning and ending dates of the pill count evaluation were properly reported in a clear and concise manner. It was the participants’ responsibility to ensure that they had their statin prescriptions refilled at the primary outpatient pharmacy on time.

• After computing the mean pill counts for the study medicine and the statin, the results were reported as the mean with standard deviation.
• Comparisons of means were made using either paired t-tests or t-tests for independent groups, depending on the circumstances.
• During the monitoring phase, which may last up to a year, general linear models were utilized in order to analyze the temporal variations in pill count adherence.

The statistical program SPSS was used for all of the analyses that were done (v 13.0; Chicago, IL). A P value of less than 0.05 was taken to indicate statistical significance.

What are your weaknesses examples pharmacy?

7 different examples of how to respond to the interview question “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” posed to pharmacists –

1. My biggest assets are undoubtedly my sense of responsibility and my meticulous attention to detail. My work is flawless, and I carefully check and recheck everything that could be significant
2. these are two qualities that I feel will serve me well in my future role as a community pharmacist. In addition, even though I had many part-time jobs while I was attending school, I was never even a minute late for any of them, even the shifts I worked in retail stores. You may put your complete trust in me. I would say that my lack of communication abilities is one of my flaws. It’s not that I have trouble communicating with others or listening to what they have to say. I am able to complete the task
3. nevertheless, I believe that in order to provide great customer service, I need to enhance my communication skills. I really hope you can accomplish this feat in a very short amount of time.
4. My years of expertise are without a doubt my most valuable asset. Seven years of my life have been spent working as a hospital pharmacist, rotating among day shifts, night shifts, and 24-hour shifts. As a pharmacist, I have been exposed to and have experience with virtually every conceivable scenario, including those that were quite difficult. It does not imply that my job can no longer surprise me
5. on the contrary, I continue to find it intriguing, but I now believe that I am more prepared to deal with unexpected. My lack of ability to use computers is definitely my worst deficiency. I am more skilled with actual people than I am with actual technology. But I am aware that we are living in the age of digitalization, and that if I do not develop my computer abilities, I will have difficulty performing the duties of my job. I can promise you that I want to get better at them, and that’s why I’m planning to take some evening classes starting in the fall.
6. My inexperience is without a doubt my most significant flaw, as I have never worked in the pharmacy field before applying for this position. I’ve always tried to be a good student, so I pay attention in class and make it a point to absorb as much information as I can. Despite this, I believe that there are many things that cannot be taught in school, such as how to deal with difficult circumstances or a large workload. But I can guarantee you that I am just as driven as anybody else and that I am willing to provide my best effort. In fact, I believe that my ability to communicate effectively and my ability to solve problems are among my greatest talents.

1. To tell you the truth, I am not yet in a position to evaluate my capabilities as a pharmacist in terms of my strengths and shortcomings. This is the first time I’ve applied for a job in this industry, and I think it will take me a few weeks of working there before I can determine the areas in which I shine and the ones in which I struggle. Regardless of how well I prepared for my profession, there is little question that there would be aspects of it in which I will struggle. However, I do not believe that perfection exists, and I think that pharmacists should collaborate with one another in order to support one another and build off of each other’s skills. That is the basis of my outlook, and I genuinely want that one day I will have the opportunity to put it into action at your drugstore.
2. If I had to choose one talent, it would be my ability to provide excellent customer service. Due to the fact that I have a strong grasp of the requirements and preferences of clients, I find that it is relatively simple to live up to their expectations and provide them what they want. At the place where I previously worked, we had an application where consumers could score their level of pleasure with certain pharmacists. I was given a perfect score of five out of five stars in nine out of 10 instances. Customers who leave satisfied are more likely to shop with us again, which is beneficial not just for them but also for my employer. When it comes to areas in which I might use some improvement, I’d have to say my mathematical abilities. Without a calculator, it may be challenging for me to count even the most fundamental of items. Perhaps this is an issue that is prevalent among people of my generation. For this reason, I never leave home without my calculator. Nevertheless, I recognize that I have room for improvement, and I am confident that I will be able to do so in my new position.
3. My power and greatest virtue is the ability to be patient. And it was of great use to me in the last job I had, which was when I was a student. Because the bulk of the customers at the store I worked in were senior citizens, and it would take me several minutes at times to figure out how I might assist them and why they came to the store in the first place. However, I have never shown signs of anger since, deep down, I am aware that everyone, including myself, will reach old age at some point. These folks should be respected for who they are, and we should have patience with them. On the other side, I am guilty of becoming excessively nice with clients on occasion, and I need to pay more attention to the things that I say to them. Even if I have excellent intentions, it is possible that people may misunderstand what I am saying, and as a pharmacist, I am unable to pay for such things.
4. I never stop trying to get better, and I think that’s one of my biggest strengths. That doesn’t mean I feel like I’m lacking any talents that are necessary for pharmacists. Absolutely not. However, I do not allow myself to become complacent, and I am aware that genuine professional development never ends. I continue to further my education, improve my communication skills, broaden my knowledge of emerging medications and treatment modalities, and do all in my power to become the most qualified pharmacist I can be. It is my strength, but it may also be a weakness, because striving for perfection may, at times, become stressful and can have a detrimental influence on your life in both your personal and professional spheres. This can be said to be both my strength and my weakness. I am still working on striking the appropriate balance in this situation.

What is your strength and weakness?

My strengths are that I am trustworthy, that I put in a lot of effort, and that I have faith in the quality of my work. My worst flaw is that I put too much faith in dishonest individuals. My feelings are completely out of my control. I promise that I will always be available to assist other people.