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H.R. 5491, Emily's Act
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Visitor Comments
Gina
IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! I have been a technician for 20 years and I am appalled at the caliber of technicians that are in the field today. If you knew what I knew you would be scared to death and the employers don't care. They just want a warm body to fill the position.
Raven
It's about time that a standard was in place. I have only been a PTCB Certified Tech for under a year but I have already seen what kind of under trained personnel can do. We need a national standard and to quit letting people walk in off the streets. For Pete's sake beauticians have to have more schooling than a Pharmacy Tech
Elaine
In my 38 years as a pharmacy technician, I am devastated by the standards in which retail pharmacys are training a technician and then calling them such. Some technicians are only being given an online HIPAA and OSHA test. Pharmaceutical calculations are a foreign object to them. That is one reason that prepared technicians are not decently paid! Please drug stores, require more of your technicians. When we hire technicians from your facilities-we want properly trained,knowledgeable technicians!
P. Valentin
This is long overdue! I have been a pharmacy technician for over 30 year's and have been pushing for Proper Educational requirements and standards. ASHP has had these standards published for years. If these standards are inacted upon without being watered down then we will have Pharmacy Technicians who are educated and ready to work in any and all Pharmacy Settings!!
Mary
People need to know there are different criteria for pharm techs in different work situations. I work in a pharmacy for Long Term Care facilities, with no retail or mail order, and there are different knowledge levels needed internally. Our pharm techs do not do the work of the pharmacists, and pharmacists must check every order multiple times before it clears. Four to one ratio of techs gets the job done. Changing to two to one would cripple the closed-door pharmacy industry and severly raise the costs of pharmaceuticals to nursing homes.
David - R.Ph.
I am a Pharmacist and agree that we need training for Pharmacy technicians. If the ASHP is the only accrediting agent then we as a industry are in trouble. All colleges of Pharmacys are accredited by Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education. (ACPE) The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education is the national agency for the accreditation of
professional degree programs in pharmacy and providers of continuing pharmacy education.
ACPE was established in 1932 for the accreditation of professional degree programs in
pharmacy. In 1975 its scope was broadened to include accreditation of providers of continuing
pharmacy education (www.acpe-accredit.org).
A.B. Texas
I am a teacher and use a Program that has ACPE accreditation. I have a 98% pass ratio of students who have completed my course and have taken the PTCB exam. The course is a interactive CD sold by a company called PassAssured. Check out there web site at
www.passassured.com
Lisa From MS
Please let this bill pass! I am one of many other certified technicians w/ an Assoc. Degree who would like to see our profession recognized and respected for what it really is. We take our career seriously and have already pursued the proper avenues that will be required of Emily's Act. If the general public is made aware of the current Tech. requirements in MS, they would back this legislation 100%. A National Standard for Pharmacy Technicians is greatly needed.
DJ
I work in a large retail grocery chain as a pharmacy technician. When hired 3 1/2 years ago, I had a specific range of time to complete my employer's tech training program. Fail to do so and you're eliminated. Although I'm studying for the PTCB test, It's SO far over the top for anything performed in a retail pharmacy! I could ill afford the training CD but purchased it anyway as I'm self supporting. No one will want to be a pharmacy tech if they have to take such a rigourous test to make $10 an hour. I pray this bill goes to defeat or something a lot more sensible takes it's place.
Mike from San Diego
Although something like this bill is needed, this is not the bill. It takes no consideration for accumulated knowledge via testing or grandfathering, it ignores other NCCA Pharmacy Technician certifying agencies, it dismisses every other Pharmacy Technician educational program save ASHP's, of which 15 states don't even have one, and it does not acknowledge the differing educational needs of institutional, retail, industry and mail order.
It is a grossly incomplete bill.