Hello, everyone and welcome to another video by HirePowers.net my name is Joshua Brown and today
We are starting a new series on career development. Today we're talking about pharmacy technician certification
also the exam process and what that all looks like.
So before we get started we want to kind of set a little bit of a foundation on some things that
you'll want to be clear on before you start this process of becoming a pharmacy technician,
and the certification process itself. So the first thing that you want to do is check with your specific
state's State Board of Pharmacy.
And you're going to want to check for a few different things. The first thing is what certification
they accept okay because there's two certifying agencies which we'll get into a little bit later and
you want to know the difference between because some states will accept one and not the other.
Some states will accept both
but you want to make sure before you get started in the whole process because
You could do a lot of hard work for nothing. Alright,
so we won't want to be clear on that, the second is the difference between a pharmacy technician license and a pharmacy technician
certification, not all states are going to require that you
get a
License to work as a pharmacy technician
But usually there is going to be some process to get your certification, okay?
So it's two separate things so again through the website and again all this information is going to be on our website
HirePowers.net/Pharmacy-Technician
you can find all this information and more there okay, and it has links to state board of pharmacy information
So you're going to want to look up okay? What certification do they accept and also secondly?
what is the process if any to get a pharmacy technician license to practice as a pharmacy technician, so
Want to make sure that you have that information down, okay?
So now we can get into the actual certification process so as I mentioned there are two different types
two different companies two different organizations that provide a
pharmacy technician certification
The first is the PTCB
And that stands for the pharmacy technician certification board alright
So they've been in the business a little bit longer than the their competitor. So they're a little bit more widely accepted
I found looking through the different state board of pharmacy information the second
Organization is called the NHA which is the National health career
Association alright
So they've been I believe they were rebranded sometime in the 90s early 2000s possibly, but this is
Relatively new to the game so and not as many states are going to accept that certification
But one thing that they do have in common
We want to go through a couple of the things that they have in common
And then we're going to break down the differences as we go along here, so though
The one that they do have in common. Is that they are both accredited?
Nationally by the NCCA that's the national commission for certifying agencies, okay?
The other similarity is that they both require that you re certify?
Your certification every two years and the fee is the same for that $40.00 for both organizations
Okay, so those really are are two of the main some similarities, you know the things that they share
but what are really important out of the differences so first we want to break down the
PTCB. Okay what the what the differences are there okay? So the the first thing that we want to talk about is
The actual exam name for the PTCB
The exam name is PTCE so the pharmacy technician certification exam the exam cost is
129 Dollars, okay, and
The eligibility you must have either a high school diploma or a GED
And you must disclose all criminal and state board of pharmacy
registration or licensure actions
okay, so a little bit the the
PTCB is a little bit more stringent on
You know maybe legal matters that you are involved in
So it's always a good idea to try and clear that up if things have happened in your past
You know before you're 18 see if you can get things
taken care of taking off your record because it is something that they're going to look at okay, so
again
some
Information on the again one of the larger organizations of the two the PTCB. Now, we'll look at the NHAthe
National Health Career
Association what their certification process looks like so their exam name is the excPT
Alright the exam cost is one hundred and fifteen dollars
Again that needs to be recertified every two years
Now this is one of the main differences, and this may determine if if you have a state, you live in a state
Where you can have either or certification? This is something that you're going to want to think about so the energy requirements?
starts off the same High School Diploma or GED
required
And then it has some additional requirements for you to sit for the exam
So the first is you must complete some type of training program or have
Supervised work experience, okay, just sit for the exam
So the training program needs to come through an accredited school, so it can be well. You know one of those technical schools
or it can come through a
formal training program
Through the United States military I also know some of the nationwide chains
I'm not sure if they have specific training programs
But if they do have a formal training program that is recognized by that state board of pharmacy
that will also count
And then there is just the straight work experience so 1200 hours of supervised
Pharmacy related work, you'd be able to sit for that and then of course the pharmacy their management would have to sign off for your
information okay, so that really sums up the main differences between
the PTCB, and the NHA so again
You know one of the reasons that the PTCB is also more popular obviously as one of is
Because of the additional requirements that are brought on by the NHA
So if you aren't someone who has that experience yet?
Or doesn't want to pay for a training program with at some technical schools. Can you know be in the $15,000 to
$30,000 range or more depending on you know what state you live in.
Then you know the PTCB and the PTCE, their exam looks a lot more enticing
You know you can self-study for it sit for the exam past it theoretically
Without having actually worked as a pharmacy technician
So obviously you know, that's that's a big draw for some now
The drawback to that would obviously be you know you go through that that process of you know buying books studying materials
sitting for the exam
and without that work experience you may not have
Or even an internship through a training program not just work experience
But you know you with the pTC be you don't have any work experience it may be
Much more difficult to find a job
Okay, now we can take a look at the actual exam content and review that and give you a little bit more information the one
Great thing about both of these organizations. Is that they provide a lot of
Upfront and free information as well as some paid information that helps you prepare for each of the tests
so let's go ahead and get started with the PTC II
alright, so the
PTc. E
Is ninety questions it's two hours long
Of the 90 questions eighty of them are graded and then a score is calculated based on how well you do on those eighty questions
So there's a scaled score system with the PTCE
And your scores fall between 1000 and 1,600 1,400 and higher is a passing score
So the actual exam is broken down into nine different parts, and those parts are as follows
pharmacology for technicians
pharmacy law and regulations
Sterile and non-sterile
compounding
medication safety
Pharmacy quality assurance
medication order entry and fill process pharmacy inventory Management pharmacy billing and reimbursement
pharmacy information
system usage and application
now we want to break it down even further for one of these topics and
Again all of this information all nine topics are broken down in detail on our website higher powers Dotnet
Slash pharmacy pharmacy - technician, so we break down the first section pharmacology for technician now
13.75% of the PTCE is made up of questions
They're going to be in this category. So we break it down and it covers the following topics so pharmacology for technicians
Generic and Brand names of
pharmaceuticals
therapeutic equivalents
drug interactions for example drug disease
Drug drug drug dietary supplement drug OTC drug laboratory drug nutrient
strength dose dosage forms physical appearance routes of administration and duration of drug therapy
common and severe side or adverse effects
Allergies and therapeutic
contradiction contradiction contradictions associated with medications
dosage and indication of Legend OTC medications
Herbal and Dietary supplements, I
Know I heard some of those words in there apologize
But so you get an idea of that they put out a lot of information and well, they don't give you specific questions
There is that
You know the breakdown of each of those topics and again all nine sections are broken down on our website
they also have some additional resources the company that you actually take the test with it's called Pearson vue and
They have a couple different things. There's a sample test that you can buy. It's $29. It's directly through their website
There's a link on my site
And you can take the project practice exam
There's also just an overview tutorial of what the process actually is they don't give you any pharmacy technician questions
But you can familiarize yourself with it, and then there's just there's a dosage
Calculation app that is available through the PTCB and again
Just some other third-party published types of materials study materials things of that nature
again all available on the website
So now we can switch gears and go to the Nha their test is again called the exe. Pt
And we'll go ahead and break that down
Alright
So the way that they break theirs down is a little bit different in smaller. Main categories in that a lot of
little Categories, so the three main categories for this exam are
regulations and pharmacy duties drugs and drug therapy and the dispensing process
Okay, so if we break down the regulations and pharmacy duties these are the seven main points there are
Over three different subcategories just in the regulations and pharmacy do alone this section makes up
34% of the exCPt. And again, this is all available through the website. It's directly
from information
available on the Nha website as is the prior information for the
PTCE exam available through the PTCB website directly
So this is all information that they put out saying this is what our exam contains
This is the information that you're going to want to be looking for so again if we break down
The regulations and pharmacy duties section on the first
Subsection is overview of technician duties and general information
And there's some bullet points here ensure all work performed by the technician is checked by the pharmacist
identify
Medication prescribing and/or use patterns requiring pharmacist intervention
Differentiate between tasks that may be performed by a pharmacy technician and those that must be performed by a pharmacist
comply with Rules and regulations when filling prescriptions
follow policies and procedures with regard to pharmacy workflow
maintain a clean work environment in the pharmacy and patient care areas
maintain Pharmacy Security by Following proper procedures
alarms Personnel admitted restricted areas
Again all of these different subsections are broken down through the website and again
It's all information that the company itself puts out the Nha, okay
So that was just a little bit of information about the certification process
What some of the exams look like what you can expect the types of things that you're going to want to study for I?
think the main takeaway that I would want for anybody who is looking to become a
Pharmacy technician who wants to get in the field or has questions about the certification?
Process is to always start with your own state board of pharmacy
You want to make sure that you know more information. Let's say you're trying to go into a training program a technical school
You know they're going to charge a twenty thousand dollars you need to do your homework and make sure that the information
They are going to be studying or have you to study is the same information that's going help you pass the test
that's going to help you to become a
Better pharmacy technician, you know what types of training programs do they have what types of connections in the community?
to pharmacies do they have
another point of
Contact that you will want to make is to go to jobs and locations where you'd like to work if you have
you know a pharmacy if you're like me you used to have at least a
Walgreens on every corner if you want to work at a chain pharmacy. Is there a local pharmacy
Do you want to do compounding? You know not not working a traditional pharmacy setting you want to work in a hospital, okay?
What are those types of places looking for and then you can kind of work backwards?
Knowing what the employer wants knowing what your state requires?
So those two things are going to help and I just hate to see anybody you know going to a training program
Not you know with their with their eyes closed
You know we want to go in knowing all the information you possibly can so you can make the best choices?
So I appreciate you watching this video if you have any questions about pharmacy technician resumes anything like that
Please leave a comment like and subscribe to our page I plan on doing many more videos on pharmacy technician
something that I've helped people with I'm passionate about
And really just the whole career development aspect of this so again. Thanks for watching leave a comment again any questions
I'll get to them as soon as I can have a great rest of your day