Thirty years ago, ASHP joined with the American Pharmacists Association, the Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists, and the Michigan Pharmacists Association to launch the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB), establishing much-needed uniform national certification credentials for technicians.
Today, PTCB’s Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT) credential is the gold standard for technicians to demonstrate their knowledge and their commitment to medication safety and patient care. To mark the anniversary, PTCB is sharing the inspirational stories of some of the nearly 2,000 technicians who’ve been certified for 30 years.
ASHP recently asked PTCB Executive Director and CEO William Schimmel about how the technician field has changed in 30 years and what lies ahead. An edited transcript follows.
ASHP: What’s the most exciting 30-year milestone for PTCB?
Schimmel: We just reached 300,000 actively certified CPhTs for the first time in our history. And we’re looking forward to moving toward 400,000. We think more and more people are going to recognize how CPhT certification helps patients, employers, pharmacists, and, of course, technicians.
Why do technicians seek out the CPhT designation and advanced credentials?
Schimmel: One of the things that’s often said about pharmacy technicians is that people do not intend to make it a career. But that’s not really borne out by our survey data.
From our latest workforce survey, it’s really clear how much technicians enjoy their work. They might have started it without the intention of staying for a long time, but they love it. They like serving patients.
And when you get pride and you’re enjoying the work, you’re going to seek out ways to better yourself. That can be through new education or picking up new skills — and validating that with new credentials.
Technician roles are evolving, and regulatory authorities are becoming more expansive in what they allow technicians to do. That opens up even more reasons to seek advanced and specialty credentials. There are now over 2,000 technicians who have earned our CPhT-Advanced credential.
What do certification and advanced credentials mean for technicians in the workplace?
Schimmel: More and more employers are recognizing the value of nationally credentialed technicians. These technicians take their jobs more seriously. They’ve made a commitment to seek out continuing education, to maintain their credentials, to be in good standing with their state. And employers do recognize that with additional compensation.
Our workforce survey data tell us that PTCB-certified technicians are about three times more likely to stay with their employer for six years or more than someone who does not have a national credential.
What are technicians doing routinely now wasn’t routine, say, 10 years ago?
Schimmel: It’s really specific to the practice setting. But my favorite thing to talk about is technician product verification — what we used to call tech check tech. About half the states allow technician product verification, at some level, in health systems. And now it’s moving to community pharmacy. There’s research that shows that technicians are really good at this. It is safe, and it allows the pharmacist to spend more time doing clinical work.
More technicians are also vaccinating and helping with point-of-care testing. And technicians have a big role in sterile compounding. In many places, they are in the cleanroom all day doing that important work.
Pharmacy technicians are also gaining a voice on state pharmacy boards. More than 20 state boards now have a technician representative, and we work closely with those technicians. They are using their unique position on the state boards to advocate for themselves. They’ve focused on how technicians can and should practice in areas like medication reconciliation and technician product verification, and they’re starting to talk about pharmacist–technician ratio requirements.
What emerging roles do you see for pharmacy technicians?
Schimmel: In community pharmacy, you will start to see, essentially, technicians becoming pharmacy operations managers. We’re seeing this already in some large community settings, and I think it will continue expanding.
Within health systems, technicians are involved in inventory management and controlled substance diversion prevention. And I think, more and more, they will have management and operational responsibilities in health systems.
Employers seem to recognize that technicians can manage the pharmacy and the business behind it. It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out from a medical billing perspective, as more pharmacists and pharmacies can now be reimbursed through Medicaid.
What do you think technicians will be doing 10 years from now?
Schimmel: I think you’ll see more of what is happening now, with technicians taking on more and more management and operations of the pharmacy. We’ll see greater automation. And technicians will be right there managing the workflow, the processes, the technology. Wherever our healthcare system evolves, technicians will have a huge role in making sure things are moving smoothly inside the pharmacy.
What do technicians tell PTCB are their biggest career concerns?
Schimmel: Technicians tell us that they still don’t feel like that recognition is there. It is improving, I think they will tell you that. The business of pharmacy is difficult, and the compensation is not where it should be. Not enough employers encourage and invest in their technicians by paying the cost of their credentials and their training and education.
What sort of wins for technicians are also wins for pharmacists?
Schimmel: At PTCB, we like to talk about how having technicians with training, education, and credentialing makes the pharmacist’s life easier. It makes the pharmacy run better. You have happier technicians and a happier pharmacy team. And most importantly, you’re going to have medication safety in an optimal place.
The ultimate stakeholder for PTCB is the patient. And all those other things working well together is going to benefit medication safety — and the patient.
In what ways do PTCB and ASHP complement each other to better support technicians?
Schimmel: PTCB works really well with ASHP, and our missions are closely aligned. We are a credentialing organization, we’re great at assessment, we’re great at working with all the stakeholders in the profession.
ASHP is an expert on continuing education. We work with ASHP to create the prerequisites for several of our advanced credentialing programs. And then ASHP has a strong role in engaging with the professional community.
Technicians often express a desire for a national voice, and that’s where The Pharmacy Technician Society, TPTS, comes in. While PTCB has a role in elevating technicians, our primary mission remains focused on patient and medication safety.
