Pharmacy Assistant is becoming a popular career option for a lot of people. Aspiring pharmacy assistants often wonder about this field and frequently ask about the skills that are required to be successful in this career.
In this blog, we will discuss the different skills that are vital for pharmacy assistants. Moreover, you can also learn about pharmacy assistant training and day to day routines.
Following are some of the most important and integral skills that make a good pharmacy assistant. This is essential knowledge to be successful in this field and will provide you with a strong foundation for your practical life.
Find out if this is a suitable career for you.
1. Medicine preparation – Pharmacy Assistant
Drug preparation is without a doubt the most exciting part of being a pharmacy assistant. Students will get training to prepare prescriptions according to actual dosages. This will involve the compounding of drugs according to the pre-decided dosage.
Aspiring pharmacy assistants will learn to properly calculate dosages, measure and prepare different solutions, blend ointments, make creams, capsules, suspensions, and various solutions.
In addition, you will learn to prepare IV mixtures that are used in irrigation, nutrition, infusion and chemotherapy. Candidates should have good mathematical skills to calibrate dosages accurately to avoid fatal and disastrous reactions.
The mathematical knowledge you will require includes ratios, fractions, percentages and proportions.
However, you shouldn’t worry too much about updating your maths. All you need is to excel in high-school level topics and concepts. Also, during the diploma, there will be numerous instances for you to hone your math skills.
2. Use of pharmacy software – Pharmacy Assistant
Just like the rest of the businesses in this world, pharmacies are digitized as well these days. A pharmacy assistant will have to utilize the software to sort out customer credentials, attain agility in tasks and smoothen up the daily activities.
If you don’t have a strong grip on pharmacy software then working as a pharmacy assistant can be very difficult. One example of frequently used pharmacy software is the Nexxsys that is a dispensing system used by most pharmacies.
The Nexxsys system is very useful and utilitarian software and can be used for several tasks. They include:
- Monitoring the inventory
- Saving information of doctors and suppliers
- Customization of patient records
- Label generation
- Task scheduling
- Sorting out prescriptions and refiling them
Pharmacy assistant training familiarizes students with this pharmacy software. There will be practice sessions and you will see all the intricacies yourself during classes as well as during the work.
This facility will be especially helpful for students that are not as comfortable with technology and will require extra training to improve their skills. Nearing the end of the diploma, you will have mastered pharmacy software and will be ready to go out in the field and work as a professional pharmacy assistant.
3. Proficiency in customer service techniques – Pharmacy Assistant
Customer service techniques are vital for pharmacy assistants. This important skill will be a key component of your role since you will be interacting with customers a lot. You will have to take phone calls, deal with the bills, interact with new customers and deal with complaints.
Pharmacy assistants are in a way the public face of healthcare facilities. Although this skill may seem insignificant, you will need to draw on it while dealing with frustrated and angry clients.
As a pharmacy assistant, you should never lose your calm. There will be seemingly baseless issues to deal with like getting free refills or high bills.
Through our training program, you will get trained to be diplomatic, understanding and open. As a result, you will be able to deal with all the nuances of workplace environments. These skills are not only needed in the work-life but are also beneficial to use in our daily lives. By building and enhancing upon these skills, you will soon become proficient in customer service.
In addition to this, you will also be able to learn to track and sort inventory and order needed supplies.
Moreover, your training will also include human anatomy overview and learning medical vocabulary.
4. Recognition of brands, over-the-counter and generic products
Pharmacy Assistants have a lot of workloads. One way by which they can reduce this workload is to get familiar with all the products at a pharmacy. Knowing brand medicines, generic drugs and OTC (over-the-counter) products can save up a lot of your time and it is also helpful in your tasks as well.
The plus side to being a pharmacy assistant is that you don’t need to have great details about the chemical components and drugs. However, you will still need to understand some uses and differences between the products.
For instance, many clients inquire about generic products and branded products. They often want to know the differences between them and ask about their efficiency.
Another scenario where these skills will be handy is customers will consult you about their ailments and will ask for OTC medicines, supplements and treatments for minor pains and irritations.
It will be an immense help if you know by memory the location of each drug and medicinal product
With pharmacy assistant training, you will have a steady foundation in prescribed drugs. You will learn about the classification of drugs as well as the conditions they treat.
With this knowledge, you can easily deal with the majority of the customers professionally.
Do you think that you already have some of these skills and can work on them to be a successful pharmacy assistant? If you are an international student outside Canada, you can apply pharmacy assistant program for international students in Canada and join our campus located in Calgary, Alberta.
