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The Changing Role in Pharmacy

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Submitted By RebeccaMBrooks
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http://www.startribune.com/jobs/healthcare/44984647.html?refer=y
The Changing Role Of The Pharmacy Technician
• Article by: Nancy Giguere , Star Tribune Sales and Marketing
• Updated: May 25, 2009 - 5:44 PM
• In a changing healthcare environment, the role of the pharmacist has evolved from primarily dispensing to monitoring and managing drug therapy in collaboration with physicians and other providers. As a result, pharmacy technicians are beginning to take on some of the technical aspects of pharmacy practice. This means that better educated, more qualified technicians will be needed in the future.
• Basic Duties
• Technicians help licensed pharmacists dispense medication to patients. They receive the prescription, enter it into the processing system, prepare and label the medication and - after the pharmacist signs off on it - ring up the sale.
• Some technicians with special training mix intravenous medication. "We also handle insurance and patient's financial questions. This is a very challenging part of the job," says Randy Cleem, a certified pharmacy technician at the Park Nicollet Clinic - St. Louis Park (www.parknicollet.com).
• New Responsibilities
• Outside of Minnesota, tech-nicians are taking on additional responsibilities. In some hospital pharmacies, one technician now checks prescriptions filled by another - a function known as "tech-check-tech."
• In other settings, technicians educate patients on the use of pillboxes and screen patients for pharmacist-run medication clinics. And at one large university medical center technicians help with data analysis.
• Changing Requirements
• Six
• states now require pharmacy technicians to pass a national certification exam. In Minnesota, however, there are currently no minimum educational requirements for pharmacy technicians, who can be as young as 16.
• But beginning in 2010, the Minnesota

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