Tuesday, 9 October 2012

// // Leave a Comment

Some Important Laws Pharmacy Technicians Must Be Aware Of


By Benjamin Clifford


All states in the US will have their set of laws that moderate the pharmacy practice field. Both pharmacists along with pharmacy technicians need to adhere to these stringent guidelines in order to work in their area. Many of these laws differ in every state, several states will require pharmacy technicians to have certification, several will require them to be registered or licensed and a few even require both. Regardless of the differences in legal guidelines you will discover similarities that several states have.

The reason it is important that you know these laws

It is important primarily because it enables you to prepare all the documents needed along with the fees you need to pay. Furthermore, it will help save valuable time as you won't need to get unnecessary items that you think you will need but really don't.

Let's talk about a few of the essential regulations that you need to know here.

Tasks that pharmacy technicians are permitted and not permitted to carry out?

These polices differ, some states permit pharmacy technicians to reveal information about over the counter drugs and others strictly don't allow this. The majority of states don't allow a pharmacy technician to make decisions that include recommending medication to patients, necessitating pharmacists to make this decision. Additionally a lot of states call for pharmacists to be present all the time, physically when pharmacy technicians perform their duties. You'll find states that need pharm techs to go through training prior to doing any task. They'll need to go through training with the pharmacist in charge and will need to pass a number of tests to get authorization.

A few of the licensure requirements

Different board of pharmacies in various states have their own particular certification, licensure and also registration requirements and costs. Numerous states like Arizona require pharmacy techs to obtain certification from the PTCB as well as licensure from the board while other states like New York don't have any licensure or registration requirements and certification is fully optional.

What are the age and academic requirements?

Most states require interested applicants to be at the very least a high school graduate or finished an equivalent education program. In case you finished high school outside the United States, you may also be eligible provided that you bring the appropriate documentation like certified copies of your transcript of records as well as your diploma. International applicants must be aware that while American citizenship isn't a requirement, you must have valid working papers or a working visa to be eligible and avoid any difficulty with the law.

Age prerequisites differ a little bit, the State of Alaska requires applicants to be no less than 18 years of age while the State of Illinois call for applicants to be at least 16, other states don't have any age requirement. Applicants must submit their birth certificate as evidence of their age.

What do you mean by technician to pharmacist ratio?

It's the number of pharmacy technicians a pharmacist can employ in their pharmacy. Most states require at least a 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 technician to pharmacist ratio, with one of the technicians being a certified pharmacy technician.

Continuing education requirements

Not all states require technicians to have continuing education. Alabama, Alaska and Arizona are a few the states which require continuing education for technicians to keep their license and registration. Remember that if you're certified you'll need continuing education every couple of years to maintain that certification.




About the Author:



0 comments:

Post a Comment