Despite the main role of the pharmacy technicians has been instructed to assist the pharmacist in nearly all of the clerical and administrative work in the pharmacy or the hospitals, there is certain tasks which are not supposed to be handled by the pharmacy technicians under normal circumstances by the bide of the medical rules. Here are some of the DO’s and DON’T’s of a Pharmacy technician.
The DO’s :
1. They are responsible to obtain & record patient drug histories for pharmacy records
2. They are allowed to pre-package drug with the knowing of the drug’s expiration date.
3. They can order, receive, unpack, and put away drug shipments
4. They need to collaborate with other regulatory colleges whose members prescribe (medicine, dentistry, midwives, nurses), to develop protocols surrounding verbal prescriptions.
5. They must wear name badge with words “Pharmacy Technician” on it to specify their role clearly to anyone which they have attended with
6. They can load automated drug distribution equipment
7. They must maintain confidentiality on all patient health information
8. They should review all technician policies & procedures annually
9. They are responsible to reconcile the quarterly perpetual inventory count for all the medications in the clinic, pharmacy or the hospital so as to get to know should there are any discrepancies found and to brainstorm among the teams as on how should these discrepancies be reduced.
10. They are authorized to sell or deliver prescriptions to patients
The DON’T’s :
1. The pharmacy technicians cannot certify pre-packaging nor certify dispending
2. They are not allowed to remove drugs/supplies involved until checked by a pharmacist
3. They should not and cannot take prescriptions over the phone
4. They should not leave discrepancies unreported
5. They are not allowed to discuss patient health information outside of the professional work setting as these information are all private and confidential.
6. The pharmacy technician cannot assess drug therapy or discuss therapy with patients
7. They cannot take a changed prescription order
8. They should not counsel any of the patients based on their knowledge and expertise as they do not own the skill-sets and knowledge of a pharmacist to gain the authorization in make sure what they have counsel are correct.
9. They cannot dispensed the medications to the patients until the identity and the volume of the diluents are checked by the pharmacists accordingly.
10. A Pharmacy Technician are not allowed to interpret data or advise/answer health and drug-related questions
