Advancing the profession

TechLectures is having a holiday contest. They ask a single question.  How do we professionalize our vocation?  Follow the link for more details.  While I will not be entering the contest (as to avoid any notion of a conflict of interest, with a link being placed on my site.) I will give you my short essay.

First of all, Show your Pharmacist that we are essential in the practice.   Good Pharmacists who advocate for us are key. There is no doubt we would loose the battle without them.

Moving on, A National Exam and Certification/CE should be required to work in this role in all 50 states.  That exam only being taken at the completion of an accredited education program.  And abolish those shady diploma mills and programs that charge inflated prices and make promises of unrealistic salaries and job growth.

The Pharmacy Technician has the potential to grow into a tried and true Paraprofession.  We lack the recognition as a trained and educated staff member. This will never happen without legislation on state and national levels that regulate their education a training.

Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians have both State and National bodies that oversee their education, training, and licensee.  And while I know little about that profession, it seems that these boards have struck an nice balance to maintain the minimum National standards of the NHTSA and the states still have individual freedom to regulate farther how they see fit.  The Boards of Pharmacy, resisting all lobbies from large corporations, should enact a similar method with stronger minimums. The training programs designed by the large chain pharmacies do nothing more than train their employees just enough to pass muster and are simplistic enough that a tech who relies solely on their training could never advance any farther on that alone. These should not be recognized by the boards as an adequate training model. An organization such as the PTCB needs to be in charge of a uniform testing model, and be enacted in all states.

Speaking of salaries, as much as it pains me to say this, we need to stop using how much we should make as a talking point.  Nobody in this profession is in it because of the money, and we will never become rich doing it.  That’s just reality. The only thing we should be pushing for at this point is a living wage. too many of us hover around or below the poverty line. While it’s unrealistic to imagine a world where every tech who puts on a lab coat will make more than half of what the Pharmacist makes, for the work that we do, we deserve the compensation that will allow us to live. Minimum wage is not a living wage.  Above that we need to move on to our other focus, and not appear greedy to those we are trying to convince.

Activism is the way to obtain it, and apathy will only hurt us.  If you are satisfied punching in and punching out and nothing more, we will never prevail. Join grassroots organizations. Write your congressmen. Attend board meetings and learn how the system works. And GET INVOLVED.

Official NPTA blog

The NPTA has launched an Official Blog for their organization.  While major news events will be covered by their homepage, and various other outlets, the blog will have a behind-the-scenes look at the industry, as well as other bits of inromation about whats going on in the world of pharmacy technicians and the NPTA.

Click here to visit the NPTA blog.

Pharmacy Technician Day 2009

October 27th 2009 is National Pharmacy Technician Day.   Celebrated in October, part of American Pharmacist’s month, this day is made to take a look at what Pharmacy Technicians do in the workplace. The vital role they play in the safe and efficient delivery of medications in the health care to millions of patients.

So, for all the Pharmacy Technicians that see this site, we say Thank You.  Tell us how you celebrated today.  Post in the comments, or the forums. Share pictures if you can.  Take pride in your career. Read more

Stubborn asthma may signal poor use of meds

(Reuters) People with difficult-to-control asthma are often not taking their anti-asthma medication as prescribed by their doctor, new study findings indicate.

Even when prescribed high doses of steroids, about 5 percent of adults with asthma remain difficult to control, with persistent symptoms and frequent flare-ups, Dr. Liam G. Heaney at Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and colleagues have found. Read more

Big pharmaceutical firms agree to generic drugs for Rwanda

AFP – Three pharmaceutical firms said Monday they support continued efforts by a Canadian generic drug maker to distribute cheaper versions of their patented HIV/AIDS medicines in Rwanda.

GlaxoSmithKline and the Canadian subsidiaries of Shire and Boehringer Ingelheim had two years ago authorized Canadian generic drug maker Apotex to export to Rwanda a “fixed dose triple combination antiretroviral medicine” containing drugs over which each held patent rights in Canada. Read more

Over 25,000 Pharmacists and Technicians Access PTCB Funded Web-Based Continuing Education Programs

WASHINGTON, PRNewswire, Press Release

The Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) is proud to announce that over 25,000 pharmacists and technicians have accessed two web-based and podcast continuing education (CE) programs developed in collaboration with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and funded by PTCB. The two programs, “Pharmacy Technician Roles in Sterile IV Compounding: Challenges, Opportunities, and Competencies” and “Pharmacy Technician Certification: Trained, Tested, Trusted” were developed to meet identified unmet educational needs of pharmacy technicians and pharmacists and are offered free of charge. Read more

Psych Drugs Gaining Widespread Acceptance (HealthDay)

HealthDay - FRIDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- A growing number of Americans now have a positive opinion on psychiatric medications, a new study contends. About five out of six people surveyed felt psychiatric medications could help people control psychiatric symptoms, but many also expected the medications could help people deal with day-to-day stresses, help them feel better about themselves and make things easier with family and friends Read more

U.S. senators urge probe into CVS drug practices

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Five U.S. senators have written to antitrust regulators asking the agency to look into allegations that CVS inappropriately used its pharmacy benefits business to win clients and squeeze smaller competitors. Other groups have already complained to the Federal Trade Commission about the CVS drugstore chain's 2007 purchase of Caremark, which specialized in pharmacy benefits, saying that the merger has meant higher prices for consumers in some cases. Read more

FDA Advises Consumers Not To Use Certain Zicam Cold Remedies

(FDA Release) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today advised consumers to stop using three products marketed over-the-counter as cold remedies because they are associated with the loss of sense of smell (anosmia). Anosmia may be long-lasting or permanent. Read more

Novartis produces first batch of swine flu vaccine

(AP) ovartis AG–European drug maker–has successfully completed production of the first batch of H1N1 swine flu vaccine.

The company announced Friday the new version of the vaccine–which was produced weeks ahead of the scheduled time–will be made available in the fall. Read more

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