Pharmacy Technician Day 2024

On October 15 it is Pharmacy Technician Day, and we will be celebrating the vital contribution made by Team North West Anglia's incredible Pharmacy Technicians. 

Pharmacy Technician Day recognises the invaluable contributions made by pharmacy technicians to patient health, safety and as an integral part of the healthcare team. It's also a day for pharmacy technicians to reflect on their careers and realise the impact they've had on patients and fellow pharmacy professionals. Our Pharmacy Technicians support the Trust by: 

Pharmacy technicians are responsible for preparing, supplying and administering medicines. They are key members of the pharmacy and multidisciplinary teams and play a vital role in helping patients get the best outcome from their medicines. The role involves liaising with patients, other   healthcare professionals and customers to ensure the effective and safe use of medicines.

Pharmacy technicians work under the supervision of a pharmacist and are registered healthcare professionals that are responsible and accountable for their own accurate and safe practice.

Key responsibilities

  • providing safe and effective pharmacy services
  • supplying medicines and medical devices to patients, whether on prescription or over the counter and providing information on symptoms and products
  • achieving the best outcomes through a patient’s medicines
  • assembling and accuracy checking medicines for prescriptions
  • providing information to patients, carers and other members of the healthcare team
  • managing areas of medicines supply such as dispensaries
  • supervising other pharmacy staff
  • responding to patients’ and customers’ questions both face to face and over the phone
  • pre-packing, assembling and labelling medicines
  • referring problems or queries to the pharmacist

We are extremely proud of our pharmacy technicians and so thankful for their hard work. You can meet some of our pharmacy technicians below and learn more about their role at the Trust: 

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Subarna

Subarna

I started working in pharmacy 11 years ago. I was specially inspired by my parents and family, as they were working in the medical field. I had never worked in a healthcare setting before as I studied different subject at my university, but it was exciting knowing that I was going to be doing something completely different which was when I realised the medical field was a great career to take. I have always been more passionate about healthcare and helping people, which was when I unlocked my true passion to working in the hospital and developed my career as pharmacy Technician in a hospital.

 I initially started work in pharmacy   as a Pharmacy Support Worker receiving medication from wholesalers and putting stock away and supplying stock top up to the ward. I really enjoyed working with people and was interested in finding out more about medicines.  I completed the NVQ courses. After few years in pharmacy, I have had experience in various roles and work as pharmacy IT assistant I was keen to expand my knowledge further and continue learning while working in Pharmacy IT department and went on to study for my NVQ and become a registered Pharmacy Technician. Once completed course on 2019 I was offered a job and worked in the Ambulatory care unit where learn lot more about biologic medications and I was part of the team that help to do ward discharge TTO medications from the ward working along with senior clinical pharmacist. This allowed me to contribute to patient care by dispensing and managing medicine.

After 2 years in Ambulatory care unit, I made the decision to move on to ward based hospital setting as I wanted to gain different challenges where attention to detail is required, I than successfully offered job, as a Medicine Management Technician where my job roles include by carrying out the patient’s medication history and medicine reconciliation. As well as communicating with patients by visiting the wards to check the patient’s own medications and order further supplies, while communicating to all the members of the multi-disciplinary team, we help patients with medication adherence. Also Help in dispensary for dispensing inpatient, outpatient and TTOs. And in 2022 I completed my accuracy checking course with the UEA so I could do the final accuracy check of  prescriptions. So, I take every day as new learning and face challenges and carry on with new dream.

 

For me the most rewarding part of my job is the fact that we get an opportunity to help others around us and making a difference to people’s lives. This includes patients where we provide medicine to give out to them as well, as having personalised talks about patient medication history. I also work along with other healthcare professionals in the hospital, by carrying out the patient’s medication history and medicine reconciliation, and I do this by talking to the Patient themselves as well as checking their medication records.

                                                                                                     

I have been involved in training and support colleagues and share learning and train new pharmacy staffs.

 

The advice to anyone wanting to become a Pharmacy Technician, is that this job role is a great rewarding career path to choose. There are many different opportunities, including a variety of work roles in the Pharmacy Department for your career advancements.