Pharmacy Technicians taking their careers to new heights

Pharmacy technicians play an essential role in the safe delivery of medications to patients in community pharmacies and in hospitals throughout New Zealand.

Tuesday 19 October 2021 is Pharmacy Technician Day. This year the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand is promoting the career opportunities that pharmacy technicians enjoy as part of the wider pharmacy team.

A new accreditation programme developed by the Pharmaceutical Society for the Ministry of Health and Health Workforce New Zealand in recent years means that pharmacy technicians can now complete extra training and move into Pharmacy Accuracy Checking Technician (PACT) roles.

Being a PACT, means a technician can do the final check of medications being dispensed. The role provides technicians with more challenge and responsibility and allows pharmacists to spend more time with patients.

Tania Lorenzen, PACT at Waitakere Hospital explains why being a PACT is so enjoyable. “I’m never bored. Every day is different. I find it challenging and rewarding.”

“It’s rewarding because every day I can see that I’m helping people. My PACT role frees up time for the pharmacists, enabling them to do more clinical work with the patients and doctors on the wards. So, I feel like an important part of the team.”

According to Sarah Marshall, PACT at Olsen’s Pharmacy in Greymouth, “The biggest expansion in my role is working as a PACT. I love it and I know the pharmacists love it as well.”

Sonya Scrimshaw, Pharmacy Technician at Life Pharmacy North City in Porirua says her role has changed a lot since she first started as a technician. “I’m doing a lot bigger variety of things and spending more time with customers.”

Ms Scrimshaw who was the winner of the Community Pharmacy Technician of the Year at the New Zealand Primary Healthcare Awards 2021, says “I’m officially second in charge now, so I have more say on how things are run.”

A career as a pharmacy technician can take you in many different directions. As Nicola Rowlands, Pharmacy Technician (Clinical Trials) at Tauranga Hospital explains, “I started working as a technician in the hospital, restocking drug rooms and working in the dispensary.”

“I then moved to the pharmacy aseptic production unit (compounding chemotherapy drugs). Since then, I’ve moved to working on clinical trials for oncology and haematology patients.”

Recently, Ms Rowlands has been offered a job at a private cancer care unit. She will be the first pharmacy technician ever hired by the private company.

I started working in a pharmacy when I was 15 years old as a retail assistant, part-time on Saturdays. Once I left high school, my boss gave me the opportunity to work full-time as a retail assistant, whilst studying for my pharmacy technician qualification with the Open Polytech.

What do you enjoy most about your role?
I’m never bored. Every day is different. I find it challenging and rewarding. I’m a Pharmacy Accuracy Checking Technician (PACT) so I enjoy the challenge of having more responsibility. Being a PACT is rewarding because I can see every day that I’m helping people. My role frees up time for the pharmacists, enabling them to do more clinical work with the patients and doctors on the wards. So, I feel like an important part of the team.

Why is your role essential to your workplace and the profession?
Technicians do a lot of the groundwork for pharmacists. We are responsible for making sure that all medications are on the ward and available for patients when they need them. We have a machine that is linked to our computer system, and it is our responsibility to make sure that those machines are filled up with specific drugs. We refill them and we check each other, so that’s a vital part of what we do in the hospital. I can check medications being dispensed now. For a technician to be able to do that is a great change. It was what I needed in my career to keep myself happy in my job and in the profession.

How has your role changed since you first started as a technician?
I started in community pharmacy and have since moved to hospital pharmacy. I’ve managed to work my way up to a more senior position. I’ve done the PACT course, which is amazing because I can check medications being dispensed now. For a technician to be able to do that is a great change. It was what I needed in my career to keep myself happy in my job and in the profession.

Where do you see the pharmacy profession heading in the future?
Technician roles are expanding to incorporate supporting the pharmacists on the wards at a patient-care level with patient counselling and medication histories.

I'd never heard of a Pharmacy Technician, until one day I saw an ad in the paper. It sparked my interest and I thought, 'that sounds like something I could do'. So, at a time when I was looking for work, it just appealed.

What do you enjoy most about your role?
I enjoy interacting with the public and the feeling that I'm making a contribution to the community. I have always tried to learn people’s names and possibly that’s part of the reason they keep coming back. Some of them come looking for me. It’s probably because I’ve been here for six years.

Why is your role essential to your workplace and the profession?
Technicians are the glue that sticks everything together. We get everything organised for the pharmacists, so they can do the bit they are trained for, which is the important medicines part and the customers. Technicians get the stock in, get the paperwork done, and keep things in order.

How has your role changed since you first started as a technician?
I’m doing a lot bigger variety of things and spending a lot more time with customers. I think I’m officially the second in charge now, so I have a bit more say on how things are run. That’s mostly because nobody wants to learn what I do, so it’s easier to let me do it my own way.

Where do you see the pharmacy profession heading in the future?
Our pharmacy is delivering COVID-19 vaccinations now. Every year we do more and more vaccinations. Technicians may end up being drafted in to help with vaccinations in coming years. That would provide technicians with another career opportunity if they wanted to take that up.

When I was in year 13 there was work experience organised by my high school at the local pharmacy. I worked for 4 hours a week in both the retail and dispensary for a school term. I really enjoyed it. When a job became available, I took it. I worked in retail for one year. But I always knew I wanted to be a technician. I was offered a training technician job and have never looked back. I love it.

What do you enjoy most about your role?
I enjoy everything about my role. I love how varied my days are - no two days are the same. I can be dispensing, sorting batch payments, organising stock, making, processing, or checking medico packs, sorting rest-home orders and changes or out counselling patients. My days go fast, and I learn something new every single day.

Why is your role essential to your workplace and the profession?
Technicians play a huge part in the process of dispensing medicines safely. We get all the relevant information and medications together for the pharmacist to do their final check before the medicines are dispensed to customers.

How has your role changed since you first started as a technician?
The biggest expansion in my role is working as a Pharmacy Accuracy Checking Technician (PACT). I love it and I know the pharmacists love it as well. There have been a lot of technology changes, with the use of robots and electronic batches.

Where do you see the pharmacy profession heading in the future?
I think in the future pharmacy will become even more important to the community than it is now. We are in a rural town, and we have expanded our services a lot over the years. We now provide INR blood testing for warfarin patients, flu jabs, urinary tract infection treatment and more. I hope we can continue to expand and offer more healthcare services to our community.

I did a course at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). I was looking at all the health type courses at AUT, and the pharmacy technician course caught my interest. I had never worked in pharmacy before. I didn’t know anything about it. It just sounded interesting to me, so I applied to do the course and What do you enjoy most about off I went.

What do you enjoy most about off I went. your role?
Most of the work that I’m doing is clinical trials for oncology and haematology patients, so for cancer and blood services patients. I enjoy working with a variety of health professionals, including doctors, nurses, and the clinical research associates (who work for the sponsor of the trial). You get to meet some of the patients as well, so that’s quite rewarding.

Why is your role essential to your workplace and the profession?
As a technician, I receive all the shipments for the clinical trials. I manage all the paperwork and all the stock allocations for the patient’s visit. I do the compounding aspect and help with the setup of the trial. It’s my job to create the compounding worksheet and the dispensing guide for the study. Basically, I’m responsible for ensuring the paperwork is completed and making sure the medications are checked and accurate before being provided to the patient.

How has your role changed since you first started as a technician?
I started working as a pharmacy technician in the hospital, restocking drug rooms and working in the dispensary. I then moved into the aseptic compounding side of things (intravenous medication) and working in the pharmacy aseptic production unit (compounding all the chemotherapy drugs).

Where do you see the pharmacy profession heading in the future?
There is quite a lot of work that pharmacy technicians are now able to do to free up pharmacists to do more clinical work. For example, there’s the PACT role, where technicians are responsible for checking the accuracy of medications before they are dispensed to patients and work on the wards with patients doing medicines reconciliations.