Pharmacy Technician

Associate Degree in Applied Sciences

The Pharmacy Technician Associate Degree is designed to prepare graduates to work in the medical and pharmaceutical field as technicians working with and under supervision of licensed pharmacists. The program will implement the basic knowledge and practical training so the student will be able to assist with pharmacy computing, inventory and billing, medication preparation, compounding, and quality customer care.

The curriculum is designed to teach the students the administrative and clinical pharmacy practices in a variety of setting, from hospitals and large medical centers to the community pharmacy. The graduates will be able to perform such duties as entering prescription orders in the computer, creating and updating patient’s  health and insurance information, communicating with insurance companies and carriers to obtain payment for the prescription, preparing pharmacy inventory, assisting the pharmacist with filling and labeling prescriptions, assisting the pharmacist in compounding oral solutions, ointments and creams, placing orders on the shelves, and verifying all associated paperwork. Courses will include basic anatomy and physiology, introduction to computers, pharmacology, pharmacy administrative procedures, pharmacy procedures, etc.

The program will focus not only on providing the students with necessary skills demanded by the pharmaceutical industry, but also on giving them the opportunity to continue their education in the pharmacy sciences, gaining more knowledge and furthering their education.  New science courses such as The Fundamentals of Chemistry and of The Fundamentals of Biochemistry and Microbiology will provide a solid science foundation for basic science knowledge and will improve understanding for the applied professional courses. The Pharmacy management course will prepare the students to work in large retail pharmacies and pharmacy distribution centers. The internship courses is a major required course of this program and the key course in student employment. It will enable the students to get direct job experience and apply the skill acquired during their training, as well as bring back to the College the changes and development in the industry to improve the program .The College is signing a contract of cooperation to provide quality internship sites for the pharmacy students with two large retail pharmacies, such as Walgreen and Waldbaum’s. Graduates are qualified to accept positions in mass retailers, large retailer pharmacies (Wal-Mart, Pathmark), mail-order pharmacies, community pharmacies, managed care pharmacies, and hospital pharmacies.