Continuing your Pharmacy Tech Education

If you are a pharmacy technician then continuing education may be part of your life from here on out. This depends in part on where you live and in part on whether you are, or intend to become, certified.
You see, currently only a few states require pharmacy technician continuing education, but that is rapidly changing as more states are starting to require CE credits for pharmacy technicians. And this is only for pharmacy technicians who are not certified.
Any certified pharmacy technician (certified by the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board, or PTCB), must complete at least 20 hours of pharmacy technician continuing education every two years to maintain certified status.
Fortunately, there are several ways for pharmacy techs to complete their pharmacy technician continuing education and maintain their certification status or remain eligible to work as a pharmacy tech in their state.

The National Pharmacy Technician Association (NPTA) provides accredited pharmacy technician continuing education programs in several formats, including online, print, in-person and recorded. All of NPTA’s continuing education programs have been accredited by the Accreditation Council on Pharmacy Education (ACPE) and are applicable toward recertification.
The way NPTA’s pharmacy technician continuing education programs work is that you read, watch or listen to the course material, and return to the website to take the test for the course. You must score at least 70% to pass, and if you pass you will receive a certificate showing that you have completed that pharmacy technician continuing education course. If you do not pass the course the first time you may review your materials and try the test a second time at no additional charge.
Another option for pharmacy technician continuing education is the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). ASHP also offers courses online, in print, and through podcasts, and like NPTA, you review the material and take a test online and must get a passing score to get a passing score.
Many other organizations offer pharmacy technician continuing education courses; you can find these organizations by doing an Internet search. Simply make sure that the organization you choose is accredited by your certifying body or your state, as you do not want to spend money or time getting CE credits only to find out that they don’t count toward recertification or toward continuing to work in your state.
Continuing education can sound like a big deal, but it really doesn’t have to be; it’s really quite simple.