Tech organization fills certification vacuum
The relative lack of recent action by state pharmacy boards to enact technician certification, licensing, or registration has opened the door for the nongovernmental Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) in Washington, DC.
Created in 1995, the PTCB testing program had certified 22,480 technicians as of July 1997, says Melissa Murer, executive director. The voluntary certification program consists of 125 multiple choice questions divided into three sections, by topic: assisting pharmacists in patient care (50%), medication distribution and inventory control (35%), and overall pharmacy operations (15%).
Recertification comes every two years and includes 20 mandated hours of continuing education. The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists accredits the program and has developed its curriculum.
Some 41% of certified technicians surveyed in 1996 said that their primary duties involved assisting with prescription dispensing, while 22% said they assisted with inpatient dispensing, and 14% said they primarily prepared IV admixtures. Forty percent worked in hospitals, 36% in community pharmacies, and 24% in military, home health care, long-term care, or mail service programs.
Notes Richard Fry, director of pharmacy affairs for the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy in Alexandria, VA, "I think the rhetoric about how the well-trained technician is going to replace the pharmacist is unfounded. I don’t see that happening, and the pharmacists that propose that idea are possibly the ones that are still reluctant to get out from behind the counter."
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