As the profession of pharmacy has progressed, the roles of technicians are changing, the emergence of a worldwide pandemic, and now with the extreme shortage of technicians, it seems like the training of technicians has fallen by the wayside. Now, we see new technicians who have only worked for a few weeks training the new hires themselves. When did we lose our focus on the training of our technicians and how do we correct it?
As the pandemic swept the world, healthcare workers took the brunt of the workload. If you were not infected with the virus, you likely were filling in for those that were, as well as working your shifts. As the pandemic slowed, healthcare workers were burned out and disgruntled about working conditions as well as compensation. Pharmacy technicians were no exception. After working for two straight years during the pandemic, being paid the exact same pay, and being overworked, many experienced technicians quickly exited the profession and moved into positions that paid higher. One example was the fast food industry. The need to fill positions quickly became the priority and not how to properly train these technicians. With no experienced technicians to train, and the experienced technicians working in advanced positions, the training model quickly disappeared, and it became the sink-or-swim model.
Now that the pandemic is over, we are still in dire need of quality trained technicians. How do we achieve this, when most pharmacies are just trying to take care of their patients with the minimal staff they have? To solve a problem, you first must identify the root of the problem. The root of poor or no training comes down to the pharmacy technician shortage. Without many technicians, who else is left to train, but those left behind? If we address some of the reasons for the technician shortage, we can work on correcting them and improve the training of new hires.
Employers
Establish hiring standards
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Are you willing to hire someone off the street, with no experience or training? Too many times, pharmacies will hire anyone that has a license, invest in their training, only to have the new hire quit within three months.
Create a conducive learning environment.
- Pharmacy is inherently stressful, but adding to the stress by being short-staffed can often create a toxic environment that new hires do not want to work in.
Education
Require pharmacy technicians to have formal education.
- A technician that has formal education already has a foundation of the general workflow, medications, and general pharmacy regulations and policies. This offers the pharmacy a strong candidate that will pick up on the training faster and potentially become a career technician.
Compensation
Recognition
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Pharmacy technicians are the backbone of the pharmacy, and they should be recognized as such. Being classified as a paraprofessional is no longer acceptable.
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Having the recognition as a professional and being compensated as such will entice more employees to stay in the profession, rather than using it as a stepping stone to another career.
Just like building a house, we need to establish strong guidelines and a strong foundation. To improve our training of new hires, we must have quality technicians already on staff. It’s a never-ending circle that continues feeding itself. We need to recruit and retain quality technicians so that new hires are properly trained to become the next quality technician.
The comments in this blog reflect my thoughts and not necessarily those of ASHP or of my employer.