Pharmacy Technician (XPHM)

This course will introduce the student to the professional functions and expectations of the pharmacy technician role. Students will demonstrate an understanding of beginning medical terminology, medical abbreviations, and of human anatomy and physiology topics relevant to the practice of a pharmacy technician. Students will also solve basic dosage calculations. Students will learn and practice basic therapeutic and business communication skills.

Students will explore pharmaceutical classifications, indications, therapeutic effects, side effects, interactive and contraindications of most commonly prescribed medications. Students will exam in􀀆 proper methods for dispensing medications safely and error free. Students will discover the general principles of drug administration and perform moderately complex dosage calculations. Students will identify confidentiality. Students will explore a variety of cultures and how it affects the Pharmacy Technician. Students will demonstrate communication skills for communication with other professionals, the team or patients/customers.

This course will have students examine technology systems that are integral for performing pharmacy technician duties in retail, ambulatory care, and hospital settings. Students will demonstrate teamwork and proper customer service, communication skills, and interactions with patients, team members, and other professionals. Students will perform complex dosage calculations. Students will discuss all steps of pharmacokinetics. Students will practice sterile and non-sterile compounding of medications. Students will discuss prescription work flow and prevention of medication errors.

In this course, students will comprehend and apply knowledge that promotes safe medication therapy. Students will apply general principles of medication regulation, standard references, and legal/ethical responsibilities to the pharmacy setting. Students will compare practice in the hospital, community, ambulatory care, and home care settings. Students will perform highly complex dosage calculations. Students will summarize prescription workflow, prevention of medication errors, and quality improvement. Students will simulate pharmacy functions including inventory management. This course includes a 4-hour AIDS training.

This course is a capstone course combined with PHM 195 Pharmacy Internship. This course will provide a review; of test taking skills, material covered in the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCE) exam, and practice taking several PTCE style practice tests.

Special Topics in Pharmacy Technician

This is a capstone course combined with the Certification Board Exam(PTCE) prep course. This course is a training to practice in the retail and hospital/ambulatory care settings under the supervision of a pharmacist. Students will experience processing and labeling prescriptions, order entry, patient profile's set up or updates, register transactions, prescription pick-up and purchase, control of inventory, and effective professional communication. In the ambulatory care setting, students will also experience dispensing, unit-dose systems, preparations of IV solutions in accordance with established protocols, bulk and sterile compounding. This course is hands-on doing all Pharmacy Technician skills in a safe, infection control, professional manner.

This course is designed to support employed Pharmacy Technicians who are seeking to obtain national certification and become a Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT). The course serves as an exam prep course to the pharmacy technician who has completed a PTCB-recognized education/training program or has worked as a pharmacy technician for a minimum of 500 hours. This course takes place over eight (8) consecutive weeks and is offered in an online format with assignment due dates. The pharmacy technician is provided opportunities throughout the course to apply the concepts of the course contents to practice tests and will have access to answers and explanations to each test item. You will have an assignment that requires you to register and pay for the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board national exam (Week 7). The pharmacy technician will participate in various discussion forums and apply what they have learned as well as their real-world experiences. IN the final week of the course, the pharmacy technician will complete a cumulative practice exam emulating an actual certification exam which will help support the pharmacy technician in preparing for the national certification exam. A 75% is required on the final exam to pass the course.