16.1 Gaining Experience

Today’s employers often tend to expect more of their technician applicants than they have in the past, including experience and certification. Since you are in the midst of an academic and formalized training program, you are already on your way toward a career as a pharmacy technician and perhaps eventually positions in medically related fields. Since experience counts greatly, more and more educational programs are requiring hands-on laboratory experience and externships, and encouraging internships.

Externships

An externship is a temporary, short-term student work experience, usually arranged by the school as part of the program. Schools typically want students to have two externships—one at a community (ambulatory, outpatient) pharmacy and one at an institutional pharmacy, preferably a hospital. At the externship, students are assigned to a preceptor—an experienced practitioner from the externship facility who instructs and supervises at the site. The preceptor facilitates the practical learning experiences. Ideally, you will perform specific tasks in these externships that fit ASHP-based objectives. You will be assessed for skills competence and areas of strength and weakness. Some of the areas to be assessed include the following:

• dispensing (and insurance in community pharmacy settings)

• inventory (and billing in community pharmacy settings)

• storage and control

• communication

• documentation

• error prevention and quality control

• work ethic

In addition, the ambulatory pharmacy offers learning and assessment in community dispensing and retail practice, while the institutional pharmacy focuses on the medication order and unit-dose cart filling practice of hospital pharmacy practice. Most schools arrange these experiences, but, if yours does not, you may approach pharmacists and these types of institutions to see if you can arrange an externship with them, scheduled during their less busy hours.

Internships

Internships are different from externships in that they are official positions where a trained or semi-trained person is hired to handle entry-level duties and work as an apprentice in training. These positions may come with payment or not. Pharmacy technician internships are usually paid and are generally competitive and have to be applied for, as with any job.

For most pharmacy technicians, an entryway to an unofficial internship is to work part-time in the retail area of a community pharmacy or in a hospital nursing assistant, maintenance, or volunteer position. All of these positions, though they are unskilled labor, provide you with valuable experience in the pharmacy work setting and offer you connections and references that could lead to jobs later.

Studying to pass one of the national certification exams is well worth the time.

Professional Involvement

Another way to gain valuable experience is to become involved in your school pharmacy club, state professional pharmacy organizations, and local chapters of national pharmacy organizations, such as the ASHP and the APhA. They often have volunteer projects or committees. At first, you may just observe, but you will learn how professionals in your field are thinking and planning for the future. Attending meetings can be a good way to meet people for future job contacts. Not only that, it is a way to affirm the importance of the field you are in and your own commitment to it. You can make valuable friends and swap experiences with other technicians in the field.

Subscribing to Pharmacy Times can also provide you with ideas about settings to seek positions in the field while keeping you abreast of the latest news.