For students heading to health care colleges in North Bay, there is no better time than now to take pharmacy technician training. The new and quickly evolving world of drugs and pharmaceuticals requires a larger staff of professionals working in pharmacies to help manage the distribution of drugs to the general public.
The pharmacy technician profession emerged around the 1960s, when the drug market was expanding, and pharmacists needed employees who could help relieve many of their administrative duties. Thus, the pharmacy technician career was born. Today in Canada, there are approximately 4,300 registered pharmacy technicians, excluding the unrecorded numbers in the territories. For students looking to enroll in pharmacy technician college for their training, here are a few reasons why this career is an excellent choice for right now, and for the future.
Flexible Scheduling
Pharmacy technicians often work scheduled hours, in workplaces which are usually open during the normal work day, and sometimes a little later (such as a drug store, which may close at 9pm). On average, the hours at these workplaces are very flexible, which means that students taking pharmacy courses who have children will find that this career fits very easily around their family duties.
The comprehensive and efficient pharmacy technician training that is now available in colleges across Canada allows students to earn their pharmacy technician training in under a year. This is again ideal for students with families or other duties, as they will spend less time paying for training, and more time out in the work world applying their skills.
Shortage of Pharmacy Workers in Canada
As previously stated, there are around 4,300 pharmacy technicians registered and working in Canada. These low numbers, paired with Canada’s aging baby boomer population of five million, means that pharmacies are already facing a shortage of pharmacy technicians. On top of this, Canada’s population is slowly but surely growing (mainly due to immigration), which only reinforces the reality that there are currently not enough pharmacy workers in the health care sector.
These stats mean that pharmacy technicians can find work from coast to coast, making this an extremely flexible career path both in terms of scheduling and location.
Range of Duties Means There’s Never a Dull Moment
Pharmacy technicians are allocated more duties than ever before, meaning that when students train to become a pharmacy technician, they are training for a fast paced and exciting career. The typical duties of a pharmacy technician today include:
- Receiving verbal prescriptions from prescribers
- Checking the technical aspects of the patients prescription for release
- Sterilizing and disinfecting work areas – quality control inspections
- Able to train patients to use medical devices like glucose meters
Pharmacy technicians also get the added benefit of a wide range of workplaces to choose from. Registered pharmacy technician may work in a community or hospital pharmacy, long-term care facilities, or pharmaceutical companies.
Like students who have taken paramedic training or PSW training, pharmacy technician employees also have the added satisfaction of going home from work every day knowing that they’ve made a difference in the world by helping others.
What do you think makes a pharmacy technician such a great career path?