A day in the life of a pharmacy technician

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman La'Shanette V. Garrett
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La --   Pharmacy technicians are known as the right-hand man to licensed pharmacists.

They are responsible for receiving written and electronic prescription requests, counting tablets, labeling bottles, answering phones, replenishing medications and filling prescriptions.

"My day starts out by making sure all medications have been refill in the robot, along with ensuring there are enough bottles and labels," said Staff Sgt. Hector Velazquez-Ramos, 2nd Medical Support Squadron pharmacy technician.

The PharmASSIST ROBOTx is an automated machine designed to store and dispense medications that have been placed into the electronic system by the technicians to be filled.

"Once the windows open, its game on," said Sergeant Velazquez-Ramos. "The patients come in with their prescriptions, and if they have any questions, we counsel them on any side effects they may encounter or any kind of contraindication that could be harmful to them while taking the medications."

In order for a prescription to be filled, it has to be typed into the PharmAssist by a technician.

"The functions that are being handled by the pharmacy technicians are actually things the pharmacist used to do years ago," said Mr. Thomas Barnard, 2nd Medical Support Squadron pharmacist. "It comforts me to know and work with such professional and well-trained technicians.

By having such, it allows the pharmacist greater latitude in the thought process to focus on the bigger picture in the end, which is the patient and their well fare."

With the different types of medicines being discovered and introduced, every day is typically a training day in the pharmacy.

"I like to give my Airmen a few tablets or capsules and have them identify it just by looking at it," said Ramos. "For the most part each tablet or capsule has a distinctive color, shape, size and feature markings. They will never know everything, that's the nature of this career field, but they need to have a general understanding and know where to look for references and help if they need it."

Each technician completes 12 weeks of training, with two different phases. The first phase is class and the second phase is clinical. After completing training one can become nationally certified, but it's not required.

Once the prescription has been filled, it goes to the verifying station for the pharmacist or senior-ranking technician to check for accuracy.

After the verification has been completed, down the conveyer belt and out the window it goes.

"I can't just pin-point one part of the job that is more important than the other," he continued. "The process is vital from beginning to end. In the grand scheme of things all aspects are important because you are dealing with patients' lives. I harp, gripe and drive that point to my Airmen and fellow NCO's so they stay sharp and learn as much as they possibly can in their career.

"The most rewarding part of this job is knowing that at the end of the day, we have brightened the patients day by giving them their medication to help make them feel better."