Illinois to require certification
March 21, 2008
Beginning on January 1, 2010, within 2 years after being employed as a registered technician, a pharmacy technician must become certified by successfully passing the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) examination or another Board‑approved pharmacy technician examination in order to continue to perform pharmacy technician’s duties. This requirement does not apply to pharmacy technicians hired prior to January 1, 2008.
For more information, see the State’s Board of Pharmacy “Pharmacy Practice Act“
CPhT Can not be Trademarked
March 17, 2008
The United States Patent and Trademark Office confirmed that no parties can legally block Certified Pharmacy Technicians from using the designation CPhT.
The US Patent and Trademark Office rejected the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board ‘s (PTCB) trademark application on the grounds that the term was descriptive in nature – the same principal that prevents individuals from creating confusion by trade marking descriptive terms such as “RPh” or “PharmD.”
After filing an appeal, PTCB then agreed that it must abandon its attempt to trademark the CPhT designation. The Patent and Trademark Office received comments from several organizations, including The Institute for the Certification of Pharmacy Technicians (ICPT), who certifies technicians via their ExCPT® Exam.
The ruling confirms that ExCPT®-certified technicians have the right to use the CPhT designation. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board issued its final order on December 18, 2007.
Webmasters Comments:
This creates an inconsistency on competency levels. Can we be assured that the many different accrediting agency’s are of the same difficulty level? Than one who passed the PTCB was tested on the same knowledge and skills as the ExCPT counterparts?
When someone is granted the designation of PharmD or RPh we are assured that the person has graduated from an accredited pharmacy school and passed a state board of pharmacy exam. Can we be so sure with any fly-by-night Tech exam that may be offered? If someone passes an exam given by the coorperation they work for are they then “Certified”?
Something needs to change.
Numbers of Pharmacy Techs on the rise
March 10, 2008
The ranks of pharmacy technicians are growing at more than twice the rate of pharmacists, according to the 2008 National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Survey of Pharmacy Law. The survey includes statistical data on the number of licenses and certifications granted by state boards of pharmacy and detailed information about pharmacy regulations and policies in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.
Between July 2006 and July 2007, the number of technicians jumped 12.7% to 284,421. During the same period, the number of licensed pharmacists increased at a more modest rate—4.5%—reaching 392,097. Because many pharmacists are licensed to practice in more than one state, NABP also tracks the number of pharmacists with in-state addresses to pro-vide a clearer picture of the number of licensed pharmacists. The number of in-state licensed pharmacists grew at a similar rate: 4.1% to 264,960. Read more
Federal Pharmacy Technician Act proposed
February 29, 2008
U.S. Reps. Steven C. LaTourette (R-OH) and Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA) have introduced sweeping federal legislation that will mandate training, education, registration and certification requirements for pharmacy technicians nationwide.
The Pharmacy Technician Training and Registration Act of 2008, or Emily’s Act, is named after 2-year-old Emily Jerry of Concord Township, OH, who died on March 1, 2006, after a pharmacy technician botched her chemotherapy dose. Read more
Training standards on all pharmacy technicians
February 25, 2008
On Tuesday, a House bill that would set mandatory education, training and regulatory standards for all pharmacy technicians, is scheduled to be introduced by Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio. He calls it Emily’s Act.
Named for Emily Jerry, a 2 year old girl who died after a technician prepared her chemotherapy drug with a saline solution 26 times above normal.
His bill would make federal grants available to states that require all technicians Read more
Chasing a Dream
February 11, 2008
“The littlest things you do in people’s lives that, you don’t know, it changes their whole life,” Iman Thomas said.
This spring, Ms. Thomas, 31, will discover if a grant from The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, coupled with her own determination, can change her life and the lives of her three children.
In March, she will complete a two-semester program at Kingsborough Community College, and after passing an exam, she will become a certified pharmacy technician. She will be qualified to assist a pharmacist in a hospital or pharmacy, measuring and labeling medicines. Annual starting salaries for pharmacy technicians range from the mid to the high $20,000s, although Ms. Thomas still must find a job after she finishes.
For now, she supports her children, Christian Holloman, 14; Elijiah Whittingham, 5; and Nami Whittingham Thomas, 1, on the $490 in public assistance and $397 in food stamps that she receives each month. The family’s $1,097 rent on a two-bedroom apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, is covered by Section 8 and some money from public assistance. The father of her two younger children also helps out.
“School was great! I passed my class! I was so happy,” said Ms. Thomas, who has completed one semester.
But in the midst of her excitement, Ms. Thomas respects the seriousness of the job she is training for.
“It was definitely stressed to us that you are dealing with people’s lives,” she said.
It has been a long journey for Ms. Thomas. “Every time I came to a point where I thought I was going to be good, I was making it, it was something else,” Ms. Thomas said. When her oldest son, Christian, was 1, family conflicts drove the young mother and child into the city shelter system.
Christian was 7 when they finally found an apartment of their own. During that period, Ms. Thomas earned her general equivalency diploma, in 2002, and started college courses, planning to become a physician’s assistant.
She withdrew from school when conflicts with her landlord landed her back in the shelter in mid-2006.
Ms. Thomas has worked at various retail and customer-service jobs, earning mostly minimum wage. Most recently, she cleaned houses for $10 an hour, but she was always interested in the medical field. It comes from a lifetime of caring for children and elderly relatives, she said.
But she knew that four years was too long to wait to start work, and so she found the pharmacy technician program.
“These types of jobs will help you to get on your feet, at least give you a start,” Ms. Thomas said. “I can have the job, a steady, stable job, to finish school and take care of my kids and home and be comfortable and not have the kids suffer.”
But she still had to pay tuition. Certificate program study is not eligible for financial aid, Ms. Thomas said. “That’s where Catholic Charities came in,” she said. “I thank God for them, because if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be in the program right now.”
In August, Ms. Thomas approached Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens, one of the seven agencies supported by the Neediest Cases Fund with an unusual request. Erin Carman, a social worker at the agency, said, “Usually it’s rent assistance, utility assistance.” But Ms. Thomas asked for and received $465 in tuition assistance from the Neediest Cases Fund and will receive $105 to cover the cost of her certification exam.
Juggling family and school is a challenge, but Ms. Thomas has help. “I have three kids, and believe me, it’s hard,” she said. “You have to talk to your kids. You have to talk to your family and you have to let them know that ‘I’m trying to do something to better our lives. In order for this to work, I need you to work with me, if this is going to work for me.’ Everybody has to have your back.”
Article by Alexis Rehrmann, New York Times.
Published 01/12/2008
PTCB considers new program for techs
December 19, 2007
Certified technicians who want to move up the career ladder may have a new option open to them in the future. The Pharmacy Technician Certification Board is considering setting up a certification program in IV admixture, now that the U.S. Pharmacopeia has finalized its Chapter 797 clean room standards. That’s one thing Melissa Murer Corrigan, CEO of PTCB, revealed at the ASHP midyear meeting in Las Vegas. Another plan PTCB is mulling is to offer continuous certification testing, rather than holding tests only on certain days, she added. This will offer technicians greater convenience in taking the test.
[Via Drug Topics]
