Hospital pharmacy technician

[Ginny]

Is there anybody who could tell me what the role of a hospital pharmacy technician involves please? I've tried calling our local hospital but I haven't managed to speak to anyone. Thank you

[taskerrose]

log onto the pj online site Hospital pharmacy jobs and read some of the vacancies (band 5) is the usual band for technicians, the role is varied depending on the hospital. typically you will need to have qualified to become a technician and most will require you to be registered or in the process of being registered. Also look at Hospital pharmacy technician - NHS Careers it gives a broad explanation. For example a typical day for me would be go to the ward check drug charts for items required urgently, check new patient's own meds to see if suitable to be used whilst an inpatient, order new medication for inpatients, complete the take home drugs for patients being discharged, collect and return unwanted medication from the ward for recyling, sort out any supply problems for the ward, do a few drug histories, return to dispensary to assist in dispensing or checking, get bleeped by ward, return and sort out new discharges return to dispensary. In between could be asked to train new staff or pre reg (usually how to check patients meds or drug history) and just about anything else the pharmacist needs to be done. Some technicans run clinics, the dispensary is technician led, you could be doing trial medication, aeseptics, I know it sounds scary if you are in retail at the moment but you will be trained by the hospital. Best best is to write to the pharmacy department of your hospital rather than phone, to ask for more details. Hope this is some help to you. Good hunting

[Ginny]

Thankf for all that. Sounds like a very busy role. I was looking into it as part of my NQ3.