Medication safety pharmacy technician in a large, tertiary care, community hospital

Work Preferences and General Abilities Among US Pharmacy Technicians and Danish Pharmaconomists

“…Technicians'/pharmaconomists' general abilities were ascertained by self-report in response to 17 items reflecting general qualities and skills acquired from a review of the literature, focusing primarily on the aforementioned White Paper 29 ; a source from community pharmacy identifying desirable technician skills for taking on unconventional or emerging roles 30 ; and from 2 reports in hospital pharmacy of successful programs where technicians used certain skills to provide new services. 31,32 These 17 items were measured on a 4-point linear scale ranging from 1 ¼ not at all able, to 4 ¼ very able, with the sum of 16 of them (excluding 1 item with a "not applicable" choice) serving as the "general abilities" scale. The surveys also elicited demographic and work environment data.…”

Best practices: Incorporating pharmacy technicians and other support personnel into the clinical pharmacist's process of care

“…A technician informaticist with skills in developing, maintaining, and using systems and databases can help streamline workflows, test reporting functionalities, and teach others in the institution how to use the technology systems in support of medication use safety policies . In fact, safety technicians can manage the administrative tasks of planning and organizing safety meetings for the safety team, researching safety events and medication errors, and reporting identified safety projects . Technicians embedded in specific clinical services can track both encounter metrics and safety metrics .…”

“…54 In fact, safety technicians can manage the administrative tasks of planning and organizing safety meetings for the safety team, researching safety events and medication errors, and reporting identified safety projects. 55 Technicians embedded in specific clinical services can track both encounter metrics and safety metrics. 46 Or, to support the clinical service, these technicians can be delegated to perform and log quality control assessments for point-of-care testing devices.…”

Pharmacy Technician Efficacies and Workforce Planning: A Consensus Building Study on Expanded Pharmacy Technician Roles

“…Among technicians, self-efficacy and involvement in tasks both within their normal scope of practice and beyond were measured for both settings, finding that technicians had favorable attitudes toward most activities they can be asked to perform, even those tasks technicians were generally less involved in performing [ 11 ]. However, there has been little research into which tasks pharmacists believe technicians can and should assist in performing, with many focusing on the implementation of tasks researchers believe technicians can have a role in performing [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ].…”

“…Early studies investigated hospital technicians’ ability to accurately verify filled medication orders and found that technician verification improved efficiency in the pharmacy, decreased time to complete cart verifications, and increased patient care time for pharmacists [ 12 , 13 ]. Later hospital-based studies examined the benefit of including certified technicians in tasks such as medication safety procedures [ 14 ], medication reconciliation [ 15 ], and recording medication histories [ 16 ]. These expanded tasks helped pharmacists be less burdened by technical tasks and be more visible and active within patient care in many hospitals.…”