Do You Really Need to Go to College to Study Pharmacy Technician?
Because of the hefty amount of knowledge and expertise required to work in a pharmacy settings, you may also want to consider earning an a diploma or associate degree. A degree can help you move forward quickly in your pharmacy career with the right skills and highest quality pharmacy preparation. Students graduating from a pharmacy technician college that offer a degree for pharmaceutical technicians frequently get immediate offers to work in medical establishments like retail pharmacies, hospital pharmacies, and nursing homes. Most often than not these students will have a shorter route to become pharmacist with little effort and earn much more than pharmacy techs. With the increasing number of career opportunities, combined with the rapidly rising demand for pharmacy technicians, it is almost certain that it would be worthwhile to look into a career in this field.
Established pharmacy technician programs at the collegiate level provide a wide variety of programs with different types of degrees, schedules and course content. There are also options for taking your classes on campus or online. The length time it takes to meet requirements will depend on the school chosen. Some may require over 200 hours of what’s called “externship” where you work in an actual pharmacy in addition to completing regular coursework at the same time. On the other hand, others may require up to 720 hours of training. You can request this type of information directly from the college you are interested in attending.
Regardless of the college you pick, some of the course requirements will be the same. You will cover the basics such as, anatomy, physiology, nutrition, ethics and pharmaceutical calculations and administration. Your class time will consist of both classroom and laboratory education and my also include an externship.
The process to be accepted into a college level program is different as well. There may be an assessment test and/or a personal interview. General qualifications are usually simply that you are 18 and have a high school diploma or equivalent. Being bilingual in speaking and writing is a bonus and should defiantly be listed on your college application.
One way to determine if a program will be beneficial is find out if it is accredited. The lack of accreditation does not necessarily imply poor quality, but having it does provide some reassurance that the program meets the general standards of the field. There are directories published on-line of accredited programs from the organizations and agencies involved in the accreditation process. The pharmacy technician colleges you are researching should also be able to produce proof of their accreditation status upon request if you cannot find the information on-line. Once you locate the accreditation, it’s wise to check with the accreditation agency and confirm that the information you found is current. Also check with the US Department of Education and make sure they recognize the agency which provided accreditation to the school you are looking in to attending.