To make a top pharmacy technician salary, you need to come prepared with two things, experience and certified education. While only time will take care of the experience part, getting into quality pharmacy technician schools for your education is something you can shop around for so that you may pick and choose the best one for you.

A program or school for the pharmacy technician will offer training courses and a degree program for those candidates who wish to obtain a career as a pharmacy technician. The programs will instruct the basic skills that are necessary to work as a technician successfully under the eye and instruction of a licensed pharmacist.

It’s a relatively new idea that a pharmacy technician should be trained prior to hiring as in previous years, the hospitals and pharmacies would hire untrained and non-certified technicians and then give them one-on-one on the job training. While this on the job training method is still around, more and more, the trend is going towards obtaining formal education and certification and this can certainly increase the pharmacy technician salary.

Some things to compare and contrast when looking into pharmacy technician schools include:

• Accreditation – The body of accreditation should be completely recognized by the US Department of Education. One such body is the ASHSP or American Society of Health System Pharmacists. Check their site first to make sure that the program you’re interested in is on their list.
• Courses Offered – Typically, the curriculum is very similar, but make sure that the courses offered by your school cover subjects such as pharmacology, physiology, drug preparation, anatomy,pharmacy calculations and pharmacy computing. To pass your exams, you will need to know these subjects. Also consider if any of the schools you’re looking into offer internships that will help you get experience and education at the same time.
• Cost – Over 400 certified programs exist in the US and the costs vary greatly from one to the other. Consider both private institutions and the local junior and community colleges when finding programs that suit your needs.

Because the need for pharmacy techs is growing along with the pharmacy technician salary, more and more programs and schools are offering pharmacy technician training. Do some shopping first before you sign on with a school and consider which one offers you the choices and the most bang for your buck.

Anyone that wants a job in the health care industry without having to deal with patients hands on should consider becoming a pharmacy technician and the pharmacy technician salary can be quite rewarding. They get to work in a clean and typically low stress work environment that can be located in stores or hospitals. Their daily duties include preparing medications that have been prescribed, counting the tablets and making sure the bottles are labeled properly, as well as certain administrative duties. Some of those duties you can expect include answering the phone, working the cash register, and stocking shelves. Typically, you will also help customers with drug, prescription, and health information.

As a pharmacy technician, you will do a lot of work with the profiles of patients. Keeping them in order is crucial to running a smooth pharmacy, as you need to know what a person is taking. Some of the information in a patient’s profile will include their name, why they came to the pharmacy, what disease or problem they are dealing with, and their present condition. These profiles prove to be invaluable when communicating with patients. There are mail order pharmacies as well. In these types of operations, the pharmacy technician will get the mail prescription from the pharmacist. They will then double check to make sure the order is accurate and complete.

Other duties you can expect when earning a pharmacy technician salary include handling insurance forms and keeping track of over the counter medications. One thing to keep in mind about a career as a pharmacy technician is the fact that they have plenty of responsibilities and duties that can change constantly. They are really an important part of the pharmacy, as they are who keeps it running smoothly each day. You will be directly under the pharmacist, and it will be your responsibility to do whatever they need help with.

As a pharmacy technician, you might need to life heavy things and you will be on your feet for a large part of the time. If you feel like you can handle those duties, you will really appreciate the high pharmacy technician salary and excellent job outlook. It is a fantastic career for those that want to help people and enjoy flexible hours.

The following video gives a terrific introduction into a career as a pharmacy technician as well as how to get started: