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Pharmacy Technicians

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Prepare medications under the direction of a pharmacist. May measure, mix, count out, label, and record amounts and dosages of medications according to prescription orders.

Related: Licensed Practical & Licensed Vocational Nurses Medical & Clinical Laboratory Technicians Medical Assistants Pharmacy Aides Phlebotomists

Industries: Retail Health & Counseling

Summary
Details

Transfer medication from vials to the appropriate number of sterile, disposable syringes, using aseptic techniques.
Restock intravenous (IV) supplies and add measured drugs or nutrients to IV solutions under sterile conditions to prepare IV packs for various uses, such as chemotherapy medication.
Clean and help maintain equipment or work areas and sterilize glassware, according to prescribed methods.
Establish or maintain patient profiles, including lists of medications taken by individual patients.
Enter prescription information into computer databases.
Receive written prescription or refill requests and verify that information is complete and accurate.
Prepare and process medical insurance claim forms and records.
Order, label, and count stock of medications, chemicals, or supplies and enter inventory data into computer.
Restock intravenous (IV) supplies and add measured drugs or nutrients to IV solutions under sterile conditions to prepare IV packs for various uses, such as chemotherapy medication.
Answer telephones, responding to questions or requests.
Receive and store incoming supplies, verify quantities against invoices, check for outdated medications in current inventory, and inform supervisors of stock needs and shortages.
Compute charges for medication or equipment dispensed to hospital patients and enter data in computer.
Receive written prescription or refill requests and verify that information is complete and accurate.
Enter prescription information into computer databases.
Maintain and merchandise home healthcare products or services.
Price stock and mark items for sale.
Clean and help maintain equipment or work areas and sterilize glassware, according to prescribed methods.
Mix pharmaceutical preparations, according to written prescriptions.
Prepack bulk medicines, fill bottles with prescribed medications, and type and affix labels.
Price and file prescriptions that have been filled.
Compute charges for medication or equipment dispensed to hospital patients and enter data in computer.
Clean and help maintain equipment or work areas and sterilize glassware, according to prescribed methods.
Maintain proper storage and security conditions for drugs.
Order, label, and count stock of medications, chemicals, or supplies and enter inventory data into computer.

Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.

Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.

Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.

Education

High school diploma or equivalent

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

1 to 12 months on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

56140/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

26.99/hr

Currently Employed

9,210

Yearly Projected Openings

920

Conventional: People interested in this work like activities that include data, detail, and regular routines. They do well at jobs that need:

Attention to Detail
Integrity
Dependability
Cooperation
Self Control
Stress Tolerance

Bar code reader equipment
Benchtop centrifuges
Bi distillation units
Cash registers
Compact disc CD or labeling printers
Desktop computers
Digital pen
Dry heat or hot air sterilizers
Filling or sealing auger dose machines
Forced air or mechanical convection general purpose incubators
Fume hoods or cupboards
Gas burners
Hydrometers
Intravenous infusion pumps for general use
Intravenous tubing with catheter administration kits
Laboratory balances
Laboratory blenders or emulsifiers
Laboratory graduated cylinders
Laboratory mills
Laboratory vacuum pumps
Laboratory washing machines
Laminar flow cabinets or stations
Laser printers
Medical syringes without needle
Medication or pill dispensers
Microscope slides
Multipurpose or general test tubes
Notebook computers
Personal computers
Petri plates or dishes
Pharmaceutical filters or ultra filters
Point of sale POS terminal
Steam autoclaves or sterilizers
Sterile or aseptic processing or filling machines
Tablet counters
Vacuum blood collection tubes or containers

Accounting software
Data base user interface and query software
Electronic mail software
Enterprise resource planning ERP software
Inventory management software
Label making software
Medical software
Office suite software
Point of sale POS software
Presentation software
Spreadsheet software
Word processing software

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