Retail vs. Hospital Pharmacy Tech Jobs: What’s the Difference?
Interested in training for a career as a pharmacy technician? Pharmacy techs play an important role in helping pharmacists provide medication to the public. That’s ...
Interested in training for a career as a pharmacy technician? Pharmacy techs play an important role in helping pharmacists provide medication to the public. That’s ...
Posted Wednesday, Oct 3, 2018 by Altierus
What Classes Do I Need to Become a Pharmacy Technician?Thinking about becoming a pharmacy technician? Demand for healthcare is growing each year. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that demand for pharmacy technicians will grow by 12% over the 2016-2026 period, an addition of up to 47,600 new jobs.[i]
Becoming a pharmacy technician can also be fulfilling. By helping pharmacists fill prescriptions and manage inventory, you can play a role in helping support your customers’ health.
To become a pharmacy technician, you’ll need training. This training can or in a formal pharmacy technician diploma program.
At Altierus Career College, we offer a diploma program that blends classroom instruction, laboratory training, and hands-on workplace experience, along with industry certification preparation—all designed to make you more competitive in the career market after graduation.
In our training program, you’ll learn to:
You can complete our program in as few as 8 months of full-time study.
Courses in our Pharmacy Technician training program teach technical skills along with ethics and the business side of pharmacy operation. Some of the key courses include:
Pharmacology: This course teaches the basics of how medications interact with human anatomy and physiology to treat diseases and their symptoms.
Pharmacy Law and Administration: Understand the roles and responsibilities of the pharmacy team. This includes your specific duties when it comes to dispensing or storing medications, as well as patient privacy and safety.
Medical Calculations and Sterile (or Non-Sterile) Compounding: Learn practical skills for determining the number of tablets or amount of liquid to administer to patients and get hands-on skills for compounding.
Pharmacy Operations in Hospital and Retail Settings: Pharmacy technicians don’t just work at the local Walgreens or CVS. You may have the opportunity to pursue roles within hospital pharmacies as well. This course explains the processes and procedures for running efficient and safe pharmacies in either setting.
Clinical Externship: Finally, all our students take on a blend of observation and hands-on instruction in a working pharmacy. Under supervision, you’ll watch and complete tasks that cover all aspects of the pharmacy technician role—a great way to prepare for your career search!
In most states, pharmacy technicians don’t need outside certification to work. However, holding certification may make you more attractive as a candidate when you begin your career search.
At Altierus Career College, we provide test preparation support and pay exam fees for a certification option of your choice:
Between our hands-on classes and certification preparation, our Pharmacy Technician program offers the support you need to get started on an exciting new career path.
Want more information about how Altierus Career College can help you train for pharmacy technician career opportunities? Contact us today!
[i] Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Pharmacy Technicians,
on the Internet at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/pharmacy-technicians.htm (visited July 24, 2018).
Our Houston campus hosted Roadtrip Nation on their screening tour of their documentary film, One Step Closer.
One Step Closer follows roadtrippers Melanie, Armand, and Becca across America as they listen to personal stories about how community college shaped the careers of working professionals. Roadtrippers engage in honest dialogue with all kinds of professionals and asked honest questions about their struggles as well as their successes.
We’re excited to continue the conversation about postsecondary education and how Altierus Career College is providing options in career technical education.
Altierus Career College nursing students completed their first round of clinical rotations at Genesis Healthcare. Before graduating with an Associate of Science degree in nursing, students must complete 600 hours of clinical rotations in addition to their program coursework.
During their clinical rotations, students practice what they’ve learned in the classroom in a real healthcare setting, taking vital signs, transferring patients from the bed to the wheelchair, re-positioning patients who can’t get out of bed, assisting in providing oxygenation, as well as administrating medications, inserting and maintaining IVs.
This year, we started some great conversations with key industry partners about closing the HVAC skills gap at all three of our local campus locations. Altierus Career College hosted local HVAC businesses to talk about how to create awareness for career technical education (CTE) and train the next generation of HVAC workers and possible apprenticeship programs so students can earn while they learn.
In addition to local HVAC servicers, we also met with Tim Elliott, CTE program specialist with Georgia’s Department of Education. Tim was excited to talk about to how partner with high schools to create awareness of CTE.
This past March, 12 medical assisting students from the Norcross Altierus campus in Atlanta competed against 4,000 other students from 84 different schools in the region. Betty Wilkins, a Medical Assisting instructor for Altierus, applied for and received a Campaign for Innovation grant from the ECMC Foundation. The grant paid for HOSA membership fees, student uniforms, travel, and other expenses.
Students participated in competitions which tested their healthcare knowledge and skills. Five of those students placed in their respective events.
