To celebrate American Pharmacists Month, Pharmacy Times interviewed LaTasha Mitchell, CPhT, System Pharmacy Technician Lead, Professional Development and Education, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), and Quinton Irick, MHA CPhT, System Pharmacy Technician Manager, Operations, MUSC. The 2 technicians described how the technician’s role can vary between settings, but they are still a key player in ensuring operations are run smoothly. As technology and health care advance, they acknowledge how it might be daunting, but such changes serve as opportunities for career growth. Both Mitchell and Irick emphasized that being a pharmacy technician is “not just a job,” but rather a career that one can grow and evolve in.
Pharmacy Times: How does the technician’s role vary between community/retail and clinical settings?
LaTasha Mitchell, CPhT: I think in the retail setting, you have a little more contact with your patients—"the customer," so to speak—and you get to develop those relationships that you normally wouldn't in the inpatient space, you get to know personal things about them, they get to know you...Even if it's retail as far as the community setting, as well as...specialty pharmacy, that forms a bond in relationship with our patients as well. One was more in-person, the other was over the phone or through communication, whether that be email or them replying to messages that we send in our MyChart system, and I think that you get to foster a good relationship and helping to provide the care for the patient becomes more personal, because they actually feel like they know you and they can actually talk to a person or ask questions.
And of course, as the technician, you're not working on the authority of your pharmacist, so I think for our whole team, it becomes personal, you take ownership with your customer or your patient, because you feel responsible for what they're getting the end result is, and of course, you want to provide great customer service. So, I think that if you're more focused on being interactive and those kind of things with your patients, you would like an outside retail. community-based situation. And as far as inpatient is concerned, the clinical side of it, you're working more with your staff, your pharmacists, anyone that works in the clinical setting, there are nurses, when you go to the different stations or the units that you have to communicate with. So, on the clinical side, of course, you're working with those who are health care-minded as well as yourself. I think that you do get to help your patient, of course, at the end of the day, you're helping a patient, but it's more personal when you're on the inventory, retail side of things.
Quinton Irick, MHA, CPhT: Yeah, it's just a different context is how I normally term it. So, you have your retail community [which is] more patient-facing, you're actually speaking with customers [so] customer service is a real priority in that setting, [and] being able to have some form of conflict resolution [is important] because when you are dealing with the public, it can be a little bit challenging depending on the patient that appears at the drop off, consultation, or the pickup window, so you do have that aspect of retail.
On the clinical side, the hospital side, you're not really direct patient-facing, but you do navigate to different units that patients are in. There's a lot of what we call med delivery on the inpatient side where you're actually doing a lot more preparation, so that's one of the big differences between a retail community versus a clinical hospital setting. There's a lot more med prep that goes on in the clinical space, so you're making IVs, you do a lot of oral doses and oral syringes, there's more mixing, I would say, in the retail space, but the skills needed for each do vary depending. There's a lot more bags and labeling that goes on on the inpatient side versus bottling and more mixing one to retail. So, that's how I would say the 2 settings kind of vary, and it depends on your interest [and] which direction you choose to go in. You like the customer service aspect and [being] on the back-end style, you like to just prepare meds and deliver them the patient floors, knowing that all the work that you're doing is helping them and giving them a good quality of care.
Pharmacy Times: How has the technician’s role changed over the years, and as health care and technology evolve, how do you foresee it changing?
Mitchell: I would say that with technology, of course, there's lots and lots of changes that are happening, but the role of the technician, I feel, also has evolved because there's way more certifications that you can get as a technician. You're not just working in a task or a role, and that's all it is...you can get different trainings and different certifications that makes you the expert in that area, for example, in inpatient [settings, there are] sterile compound and preceptor programs that make you the go-to person, the expert in your area, or the designated person. I think, with the incoming of different certifications, it makes the tech elevate more as well as not just having a certification behind your name, but also, [what] you gain from doing these programs is very important. And as far as leadership is concerned, like Quinton and myself, we're both in a leadership role for our system, and I feel like we're going to start to see more and more of that as things change and evolve for the technician.
And the technician is basically the backbone of the pharmacy, whether you're in the ambulatory space, retail, or if you're in the clinical space where it's inpatient, I feel like the pharmacy tech holds things together. We're the glue, we're the people that run or make the machine operate. And I feel like the other thing that's important along with that, not just technology, but communication as well, your communication skills, how you can communicate with not only your team that works with you in the pharmacy, but also those that you will interact in whichever space that you're in, that you're able to interpret things as well as communicate the things that need to be talked about with your team, whether it be other technicians, you're the lead over them, or if you're just a regular care team member and you have to work together as a good, cohesive team. So, I think those things are important, as well as technology for the age in which we're going to.
Pharmacy Times: How do you stay motivated while maintaining a high standard of service in a rapidly changing environment?
Key Takeaways
- Differences in Technician Roles Across Settings: The role of pharmacy technicians varies significantly between retail/community and clinical settings. In retail, technicians have more direct patient interaction, fostering personal relationships, while in clinical settings, the focus is on working with health care professionals and preparing medications such as IVs and oral doses. Both environments require different skill sets, with retail emphasizing customer service and clinical focusing on medication preparation.
- Evolving Technician Role with Technology and Certifications: As health care and technology evolve, the role of pharmacy technicians has expanded. Technicians can now pursue specialized certifications, such as sterile compounding and preceptorships, which elevate their expertise and leadership within the pharmacy. The expanding scope of certifications highlights how technicians are increasingly integral to healthcare teams, becoming the "backbone" of the pharmacy in both clinical and retail settings.
- Opportunities for Career Advancement: Both LaTasha Mitchell and Quinton Irick emphasize the importance of career advancement to maintain motivation and retention among pharmacy technicians. They encourage technicians to seek new roles and opportunities within health care, highlighting the profession as a career with long-term growth potential rather than just a "job." Promoting the pharmacy technician role, especially through education and recruitment, can help address workforce shortages and enhance job satisfaction.
Irick: So, I guess—again—I think one of the best ways to stay motivated while maintaining [that] high standard of service...is to keep a mindset of advancement. Seeing if the organization that you work at offer different opportunities outside of the traditional pharmacy roles. There's a multitude of roles that technicians can attain now in the current health care space, not every organization has every single one, but just like not every store has the same type of clothing, not every hospital is going to have the same positions offered. But if you keep that mindset, it does kind of keep you motivated to keep going. We have technicians that some of some of us are familiar with the term "seasoned techs," those that have been [working] 10 to 15 years [or more], and a part of their tenure at any organization is just due to the opportunities that are given to them. I have seen many technicians fall out of the space just due to lack of interest, and I can come with a multitude of reasons why that why that exists, but I think again, keeping opportunities available and opportunities for advancement can keep technicians motivated.
Pharmacy Times: Any final or closing thoughts?
Irick: I just want to always encourage and promote the profession, so any chance I get I'm always trying to recruit just because my role is focused on retention and recruitment...any chance I get, any place I go, I ask, "Have you ever thought about pharmacy? Have you ever thought about the world of a technician?" So, I try to inform them on what a technician is, all the opportunities that come along with it outside of just the traditional mindset of a person when they think of what a pharmacy technician is, and sometimes [at] colleges, high schools, and middle schools, educating folks on the profession itself. I always say around shortages...my understanding is...I don't believe that the technician shortage that we've had was due to the amount of technicians, I believe there are a lot of folks that are interested in technicians. The shortage was due to the skill set that technicians have, so we don't see a lot of skilled technicians in the open market actively searching for roles. A lot of those stay, they become seasoned techs—like I mentioned earlier. I just think the technician workforce could be better, I think there's a lot of things that we can do around pay, a lot of things we can do around opportunities to advance, I think there's a lot we can do to improve the workforce, and it's going to take us as a whole to make those changes happen.
Mitchell: And also, like Quinton said, I think the more that we as technicians promote our role, I think that people will start to realize that this is a career and not just a job, you know? I think, like he said, we're probably one of the seasoned "OG techs," but I think the more that people realize that it's a career, not just, "Oh, I have a job in the pharmacy," I think that that becomes more evident that this is something that you can grow and evolve in.
