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The pharmacy technician training program is 20 weeks long.
Our program is quite accelerated-- you
can go through our program in less than six months.
For individuals who work full time, the very first
12 weeks of the program are all completed primarily online,
so students in our program have the opportunity
to continue working.
Many of our past students and our graduates
maintained full-time employment while they
were in the first half of the program.
In 2016, my daughter was born very prematurely, 14 weeks
early, and because of the time she spent in the hospital,
I decided to leave retail and get into health care
as a means to help people.
You get to work with great people,
meet new people, which is excellent,
and it's an exciting career.
I graduated high school, started college, and then
ended up coming back home.
School just wasn't for me.
I love science and stuff like that,
and doing math, and doing something
that is very hands-on.
I learned about the pharmacy technician program,
so I was like, yeah, this seems like something I
would probably be good at.
So I applied and got in.
I worked as a manufacturing worker for the last 16 years
prior to coming to Mayo Clinic into the pharmacy tech program.
I had a major accident on a bike.
It's pretty fortunate that I came out of it,
and it kind of opened up my eye when
I was admitted in the hospital and getting all this help
that I needed to get better.
I like working and doing something that help others.
During that 20 weeks, students participate
in three different kinds of education.
So the first 12 weeks is the online education,
then there are two weeks of on-site simulation,
we call it, which is essentially lab.
Students have the opportunity to practice
the various skills required of them in the pharmacy
profession.
And then the experiential rotations--
or the clinical rotations, as we call them-- enable students
an opportunity to explore the pharmacy profession.
So those last six weeks, it's a full-time opportunity
for students to be able to experience what
does it look like to be a pharmacy technician in our Mayo
Clinic Department of Pharmacy.
From my first day in the pharmacy tech
program to my first day on the job was less than six months.
Pharmacy technicians are doing more and more advanced
roles than ever before.
Pharmacy technicians are now in our community pharmacies
administering immunizations to patients.
Pharmacy technicians are now in the emergency room
interviewing patients to obtain an accurate medication history.
Pharmacy technicians are compounding
sterile and non-sterile medications,
working in hazardous compounding,
chemotherapy, working in pediatrics.
Our profession allows an individual
to explore the different avenues of health care
and identify where they want to take their career.
I bought my first car this year, and I've
been able to live on my own.
Going on trips that I've never been
able to do because I have the benefits
and pay of working at Mayo Clinic.
If you want to, there's always an opportunity to move up.
I asked to check out what was going on
in the pediatric pharmacy.
I liked what I saw, and the supervisor
came to me the next day and said,
we want to put you on the schedule
and start training you.
So I immediately moved to the pediatric pharmacy.
Before the program, I didn't think
that the health care field would be something for me.
But after experiencing everything,
doing the rotation and stuff, it opened up my eyes.
Like, this was like something for me
because I love to do something that help out others.
One of the things that I feel our students come back and tell
me is that, yes, this work is very similar to other work
I've done, but it has purpose.
It has meaning.
It has a reason behind it for me to get up no matter
how I'm feeling today, put on a smile,
and do the best I can to service the patients in need.
It's about just taking that leap of faith.
Just take that first step.
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