• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

medsafetyonline

A forum for caregivers and pharmacy professionals concerned with patient and provider safety.

  • About
  • Post Index
  • Resources
  • RxTOOLKIT®
  • Current Events
  • Contact

NICU

More Than Just a Pharmacy Technician

July 16, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

The following guest post was written by Joanne Adam, a certified pharmacy technician. We are grateful to Joanne for sharing her story and helping others to understand how important the role of pharmacy technician has become, especially in our nation’s hospitals.

 

When I first started out as a pharmacy technician, people would ask me, “What do you do for a living?” and I would often answer, “I am just a pharmacy technician.” When I think of the many changes that have happened over the 30+ years I have been working in as a tech, I certainly need to re-think my original answer!

Over time, I have seen the role of a pharmacy technician, in the hospital setting, evolve from clerk and typist into critical and important member of the pharmacy team. As my role changed, my attitude about my work also changed. I realized that what I did was important and had a direct impact on the safety and welfare on the patients I was helping to care for.

There are many opportunities for technicians to expand their skill sets, especially in a hospital environment: from stocking automated dispensing machines to repackaging and relabeling medications, from learning to make intravenous infusions to mixing chemotherapy drugs, from shooting IVs by hand to the latest in robotic technology – the possibilities are vast!

While many states don’t require it, getting your certification as a pharmacy technician is a great first step to begin a career in health care. Once you are placed in a job, continuing education builds on that training along with the experience you gain working with other technicians and pharmacists. I’ve taken away many new techniques and procedures from the people that I have worked with along the way.

If I could give some words of advice to someone thinking about becoming a pharmacy technician, I would say, “Learn as much as you can!” There is never a job too small to learn. Also, “Ask questions!” To ask is to better understand how and why something works. Lastly, “Can you show me how it’s done?” If you are shown how a task is done, you have an opportunity to learn a new skill and then you can take that skill with you.

It can be a stressful job and it’s essential to stay focused and get it correct. With a dedication to learn and the guidance of a good pharmacy team, the hard work can be very rewarding.

I take great pride in my job because I want to do the right thing for the patient and for myself.  There is great satisfaction in knowing that by delivering a stat medication to a nurse or preparing an IV needed for a critical NICU baby, that I was truly able to help someone in need.

As I think back about my career in pharmacy, I realize I am so much more than “just a pharmacy technician”! I am a certified pharmacy technician and a truly valuable member of the healthcare team.

 


Are you looking for an affordable and accessible career opportunity in healthcare?

Become a Certified Pharmacy Technician!

On Sale this Summer! Pharmacy Technicians University is the best-in-class online training program for pharmacy techs. Don’t miss out on the your chance to save, use coupon code: SUMMER25 to claim your discount in our online shop before it expires.

For more information about pharmacy technician certification please visit: https://rxtoolkitelearning.com/ptu/

To enroll in Pharmacy Technicians University and prepare to take the national certification exam from the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board, please visit: https://rxtoolkitelearning.com/shop/

 

 

Filed Under: Personal Stories Tagged With: awareness, medication safety, NICU, patient and provider safety, pharmacy technician

Technology, Technicians, Action!

June 8, 2015 by Chuck DiTrapano RPh 1 Comment

This post was updated on 06-18-20

The profession of pharmacy has certainly evolved in the years since my graduation and licensure. Significant improvements to patient care and an increase in quality outcomes are evident to any long-term observer of the profession. But this progress has revealed a major vulnerability. My goals are to bring this deficiency to light and to do something about it.

In addition to being the president and founder of RxTOOLKIT.com, I was formerly the operations manager of a large (700 bed) hospital. The pharmacy department there was fortunate to have the latest technology and a state of the art facility. They even provided a PGY 1 residency program and acted as a practice site for six different local schools of pharmacy.

As I interacted with students and residents, two things became apparent:

  • They are much better prepared for the clinical challenges of the profession than I was at that stage of my career
  • Most have little or no interest in operational jobs like mine (focused on dispensing and distribution)

Both observations make sense when you see the expanded role pharmacy is taking into so many different areas. In most hospitals now there are many different specialized areas in the pharmacy: clinical specialists, oncology specialists, and anticoagulant specialists.

Those clinical positions are the most sought after by recent graduates and the ones they are most prepared to do. But I wonder, “In the future, who is going to take care of dispensing and distribution?”

I ask that question often and the answer that I usually receive is, “These jobs will be done by technology and technicians.”

My reaction is two-fold, “You really don’t understand the limitations of the existing technologies” and “Where are we going to find these technicians?”

 

Technology

As I mentioned, the hospital where I formerly worked had the very latest in pharmacy technologies, including state of the art robotics. I am absolutely a strong proponent for technology and my company RxTOOLKIT offers many technologically based solutions.

Frequently, technologies are singular components in a larger workflow involving many moving parts.

As an example, let’s look at preparing a NICU stock solution and then repackaging the solution into individual syringes. Normally the following separate silos of technology are utilized:

  • Printer Application: Print the stock solution label capturing lot numbers / expiration dates
  • Barcode Verification Application: Barcode verify ingredients in preparation
  • Follow Established Procedure: Paper or electronic, centrally stored for reference
  • Printer Application: Print syringe labels for repackaging the stock solution dose into a syringe
  • Electronic or Paper Storage: Logging all of this in a book or online for regulatory compliance and quality control

Often times, these individual technology silos can be extremely expensive, severely limiting their practical use in smaller hospitals.

And I caution, that technology alone is not the answer. I have yet to see a technology that can be a substitute for understanding workflow and a well designed process. And even the best technology won’t work without well-trained people and an established process. Check out RxWORKFLOW™: Integrating Technology and Process or visit ivsafety.rxtoolkit.com for more on this topic.

RxTOOLKIT advocates for smarter solutions that incorporate technology with process and competency. We work hard to make the solutions we offer accessible and affordable.

 

Technicians

I drive a car. Before I could get behind the wheel, I had to prove my competency with both a written and observational exam.

I get my hair cut at a local barber. My barber has a framed license hanging on the wall proving her competency at cutting hair.

If I were admitted to a hospital in the United States, a pharmacy technician would almost certainly prepare any drugs given to me. Would there be a license I could point to that would demonstrate their competency? In almost every state in the country the answer is NO! Only 16 states currently require licensure as of this post, please see this post and the interactive map on the Emily Jerry Foundation’s site for more information.

Most hospitals do have an internal training program or may require technicians to pass a national certification exam. But there is no consistent, enforceable, governmental mandate. Who is responsible if something goes wrong? The pharmacist is the one who is accountable for what happens and is typically the only one with a license to loose.

How prepared are they for this responsibility? The answer: not particularly! Especially when education is moving further away from the skills required to supervise and perform operational tasks.

The extreme case of what can go wrong is former pharmacist Eric Cropp. The pharmacy technician’s error—missed by Eric—resulted in the death of two-year-old Emily Jerry. It also resulted in the loss of license, his career, and ultimately his freedom. Eric was the second victim in this medication error.

The pharmacy technician is a complex, sensitive, and extremely important job! We need to treat it as such.

 

Action!

We, at RxTOOLKIT, see the lack of standardization and training for pharmacy technicians as a significant patient safety issue and have made the decision to act.

We have become advocates for national pharmacy tech certification and are also lobbying for hospital pharmacy technician certification on a state-by-state level.

We have partnered with the Emily Jerry Foundation and Eric Cropp to help educate both the profession and the public about the changes that need to come.

RxTOOLKIT eLEARNING™ has also recently partnered with TRC Healthcare (Authors of Pharmacist’s Letter and Pharmacy Technician’s Letter) in advancement of Pharmacy Technicians University (PTU). This online competency‐based curriculum provides all of the tools and information needed to prepare techs for the job and the national certification exam.

Only after Emily Jerry’s tragic death, did the State of Ohio pass Emily’s Law requiring certification, background checks, and proven competency for pharmacy technicians. We don’t think it should take another senseless death to motivate change—We want Emily’s to be the last innocent life lost! If we can help prevent losing ONE MORE LIFE, isn’t it worth all of the ideas, energy, and passion we can muster?

 

Want to join the Zero Movement?

Please make a generous donation to the Emily Jerry Foundation.

Tell someone you know about Pharmacy Technician’s University, a portion of proceeds from the sale of these courses is donated directly to the Emily Jerry Foundation.

Contact us if you are interested in volunteer opportunities.

For more information about RxTOOLKIT eLEARNING™ please contact elearning@rxtoolkit.com or visit RxTOOLKITeLEARNING.com.

Filed Under: Competency, Medication Safety, Pharmacy Law, Pharmacy Technology Tagged With: awareness, Eric Cropp, medication error, medication safety, NICU, patient and provider safety, pharmacy technician, pharmacy technology, RxTOOLKIT, second victim

Preventable Medical Errors by the Numbers – Infographic by RxTOOLKIT®

March 20, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

(Click image to view full size)

Preventable Medication Errors by the Numbers – Infographic by RxTOOLKIT®

Share this Infographic On Your Site

RxTOOLKIT encourages you to share this infographic but you must include attribution. To embed the graphic, please copy and paste the code below:

References

All statistics regarding RxTOOLKIT are valid as of January 1, 2015. Please contact us if you would like more information.

1. http://journals.lww.com/journalpatientsafety/Fulltext/2013/09000/A_New,_Evidence_based_Estimate_of_Patient_Harms.2.aspx
2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23155743
3. http://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2003/2003-09/2003-09-7372#sthash.I5QJECkL.dpuf
4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7791256 – L L Leape, D W Bates, D J Cullen, et al., “Systems Analysis of Adverse Drug Events”, Journal of the American Medical Association, 274 (1995), pp. 35–43
5. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9728 – 1999 IOM report, Institute of Medicine (1999), To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System,Washington, DC; National Academy Press
6. http://www.ajhp.org/content/54/8/904.short – E A Flynn, R E Pearson, and K N Barker, “Observational Study of Accuracy in Compounding IV Admixtures at Five Hospitals”, American Journal of Health-system Pharmacists, 54 (April 15, 1997), pp. 904–912.

Infographic Design and Illustration: DNC.media

If you would like more information or to schedule a live demo of please contact RxTOOLKIT.

 

Filed Under: Medication Safety, Pharmacy Technology Tagged With: awareness, medication error, medication safety, NICU, patient and provider safety, pharmacy technology, RxTOOLKIT, safety net

Primary Sidebar

Connect With Us Online

Thanks For Dropping By!

Join the dis­cus­sion by leav­ing com­ments, sub­mit a discussion topic, or share your story for us to print.

PLEASE NOTE:

Posting or commenting on medsafetyonline.org is not a substitute for reporting medication errors through ISMP-MERP.

Let’s Stay In Touch

We promise never to share your address! You will only receive an email when a new post is added.

Recent Posts

  • Are You Ready to Prepare and Administer COVID-19 Vaccines and Therapies?
  • Introducing RxWORKFLOW for Vaccine Safety™
  • Tools to Support Success
  • More Than Just a Pharmacy Technician
  • Reflections on the Future of Infusion Safety

Categories

  • Competency
  • Labeling
  • Medication Safety
  • Personal Stories
  • Pharmacy Law
  • Pharmacy Technology

Footer

The Latest Posts

  • Are You Ready to Prepare and Administer COVID-19 Vaccines and Therapies?
  • Introducing RxWORKFLOW for Vaccine Safety™
  • Tools to Support Success
  • More Than Just a Pharmacy Technician

Connect With Us Online

Looking For Something?

Follow Us On Twitter

My Tweets

Copyright © 2021 medsafetyonline.org All rights reserved. Site design and production DNC.media