Your Typical Day as a Pharmacy Technician

There are a world of patients looking for wellness, seeking quality of life along with quantity of life, and a pharmacy technician, working alongside a licensed pharmacist, are the team members to support them on their journey to greater health and well-being.

A leading-edge pharmacy technician program will offer you the theory and hands-on training to ensure you’re skilled, confident and in demand in a growing industry from day one. But whether you’ve taken the leap into a pharmacy technician course or are exploring your career options, to know what a day-in-the-life of a pharm tech is like can empower you to make an informed decision about your future.

Your Typical Day as a Pharmacy Technician

Early A.M. Set Up for Success

Like with any fast-paced position, the beginning of your day sets the tone for your feeling organized by getting some basic duties completed, ensuring you’re ready for any rush that comes with customers. These set-up tasks may include:

• Checking phone and email messages for requests and questions.
• Checking the calendar for the day’s appointments.
• Organizing your workstation.
• Team meeting with your supervisor, pharmacist or colleagues to discuss any challenges or concerns or particular focus for the day.
• Responding to inquiries sent in the off hours.

Day-to-Day Typical Duties

While you will adapt and respond to what is required by your team, the patients and customers throughout the day, your responsibilities will typically include:

• Greeting, with gusto and warmth, the customers of the day.
• Validating patient data and entering data with accuracy to ensure records are kept up to date.
• Handling prescriptions, including clarifying and confirming dosages and determining how medicines interact with one another.
• Refilling medicines.
• Labeling bottles.
• Addressing a doctor’s queries or issues with a client’s prescriptions.
• Attending to inbound calls and emails.
• Maintaining stock and inventory management, including taking and logging orders, dealing with deliveries, clearing out expired stock and disposing of properly, restocking inventory, including office supplies, as needed.
• Basic customer service on an ongoing basis throughout the day.
• Submitting and validating insurance claims.
• Ensuring pharmacy and lab equipment clean and sanitized.

Engagement in Regular Team Debriefs and Meetings

You bring a key skillset to the team, but your role can evolve, and change based on the needs of your co-workers and patients, so attending and playing an active part in meetings is essential. This is also a terrific time and way to glean from your supervisors and gain insight into how you can more effectively contribute to your team.

This kind of proactive development as a team is a powerful way to continue to provide top-notch service and will keep patients and customers coming back and referring your services to others.

The meeting agendas may include:

• Review of patient needs and who will attend to which part of the service.
• Debrief on challenges encountered, how they were handled and what, if anything, could be improved upon.
• Reflection on any safety concerns, and areas for improvement.
• Considering wait times and customer feedback and discussing how to constantly evolve in the service provided.

Patient Connections

While the pharmacist will often deal directly with patients, there are often occasions when you’ll be asked to discuss details of medications and prescriptions with patients, educating and assuring them. Your compassionate care and ability to explain technical details with ease and simplicity will go a long way to customers feeling supported and safe in your care.

Patient care, being on your feet and interacting with others is a huge part of your job and how you deal with others will set the tone for the positive experience you’ll have in this position in this dynamic field of healthcare.

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While your role and focus will shift slightly from day to day, how you support your team with attending to details, organize collective workspaces, respond to the needs of patients and head home knowing you make a significant difference to others, remain the same. If you thrive in a fast-paced environment and get a buzz from juggling many tasks and embracing the needs of others in any given moment, this is the career for you.

If you’re still exploring whether pharmacy technician classes or a pharmacy technician course in Ontario match your interests and goals, why not take the “Anderson College Pharmacy Technician Career Discovery Quiz” to find out more?

But when you’re ready to take the leap and learn all there is to know about a career as a Pharmacy Technician, we’re here to help you navigate your way. Book a virtual appointment with our admissions team today and let’s explore the possibilities together.

Quick Links to Fuel Your Success!

We want to make sure you have what you need to succeed! Check out these reference links:

• Pharmacy Programs – Anderson College
• Pharmacy Assistant vs Pharmacy Technician -The Differences & Your Best Career Move
• 10 Traits of a Stellar Pharmacy Technician