California Pharmacy Technician Schools
Pharmacy Technician Career Information
- Becoming a Pharm Tech in California - Find out what training and licensing is required to become a pharmacy technician in California. Also, find out what organizations you can join to keep up to date on the pharmaceutical industry.
- Pharmacy Technician Q&A - Learn more about a career as a pharmacy technician from someone who actually works in the field today. Read our interview with a pharmacy technician who talks about the pros and cons of her job.
- Pharmacy Technician Career Overview - Learn about the duties and salary potential of pharmacy technicians.
Learn more about a career as a pharmacy technician from someone who actually works in the field today. Read our interview with a pharmacy technician who talks about the pros and cons of her job.
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Academy of Professional Careers
Request More Information Locations:
San Diego, CA
/ San Marcos, CA
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Pharmacy Technician (Diploma)
Students will receive the hands-on training and knowledge required to open their own business or to function effectively in massage clinics, spas, hospitals, doctors' offices, sporting events and more.
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Career Colleges of America
Request More Information Locations:
Los Angeles, CA
/ San Bernardino, CA
/ South Gate, CA
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Pharmacy Technician (Diploma)
Upon successful completion of the training, the graduate will be able to identify and understand drug nomenclature, dosage forms, routes of administration, and abbreviations used in pharmacy; identify the most common medications by their trade and generic names; perform conversions and/or calculations of weights and measures; understand California pharmacy law; understand basic pharmacology; and perform pharmacy operations of the Drug Distribution system, sterile product preparation, and outpatient areas.
Central Coast College
Request More Information Locations:
Salinas, CA
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Pharmacy Technician (Diploma)
Pharmacy Technicians are registered by the State of California and can work either in hospital pharmacies or in retail drug stores. Our intensive program is designed to prepare you for the workplace.
Clarita Career College
Request More Information Locations:
Santa Clarita, CA
/ Lancaster, CA
/ Long Beach, CA
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Pharmacy Technician (Diploma)
The Pharmacy Technician program has been designed to prepare students for entry-level employment as an entry-level assistant to a licensed pharmacist. Employment opportunities include positions in hospitals, medical centers, skilled nursing facilities, private pharmacies, outpatient clinics, and pharmaceutical companies.
CSI Career College
Request More Information Locations:
Vacaville, CA
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Pharmacy Technician (Certificate)
Emphasis will be placed on information necessary for students to take & pass the National Certification Exam through the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB).
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Everest College
Request More Information Locations:
Anaheim, CA
/ Alhambra, CA
/ City of Industry, CA
/ Los Angeles, CA
/ San Francisco, CA
/ San Jose, CA
/ Torrance, CA
/ West Los Angeles, CA
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Pharmacy Technician (Diploma)
Our program will provide you with strong academic and clinical backgrounds in the areas of: pharmacy administration, anatomy and physiology, medical terminology and Pharmacology.
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High-Tech Institute
Request More Information Locations:
Sacramento, CA
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Pharmacy Technician (Diploma)
Pharmacy Technicians help licensed pharmacists provide medication and other health care products to patients. Technicians usually perform routine tasks to help prepare prescribed medication for patients, such as counting tablets and labeling bottles. Technicians refer any questions regarding prescriptions, drug information, or health matters to a pharmacist.
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InterCoast College
Locations:
Burbank, CA
/ Carson, CA
/ Orange, CA
/ Riverside, CA
/ West Covina, CA
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Kaplan College
Request More Information Locations:
Riverside, CA
/ Vista (North County), CA
/ Palm Springs, CA
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Pharmacy Technician (Diploma)
The objective of the Pharmacy Technician program is to prepare students with the knowledge, technical skills, and work habits required for an entry-level position in the pharmacy field or related areas.
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Milan Institute
Request More Information Locations:
Indio, CA
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Pharmacy Technician (Diploma)
Students will receive the hands-on training and knowledge required to open their own business or to function effectively in massage clinics, spas, hospitals, doctors' offices, sporting events and more.
Mission College
Locations:
Santa Clara, CA
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San Joaquin Valley College
Request More Information Locations:
Bakersfield, CA
/ Fresno, CA
/ Rancho Cucamonga, CA
/ Visalia, CA
/ Rancho Cordova, CA
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Pharmacy Technician (Associate's Degree)
SJVC's Pharmacy Technology program prepares you to work under the direct supervision of a Registered Pharmacist as part of a team responsible for carrying out a doctor's pharmaceutical orders. Pharmacy Technicians assist in the various activities of compounding, distributing and dispensing of medications.
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Pharmacy Technology (Associate's Degree)
SJVC's Pharmacy Technology program prepares you to work under the direct supervision of a Registered Pharmacist as part of a team responsible for carrying out a doctor's pharmaceutical orders. Pharmacy Technicians assist in the various activities of compounding, distributing and dispensing of medications.
Santa Barbara Business College
Request More Information Locations:
Santa Maria, CA
/ Bakersfield, CA
/ Palm Desert, CA
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Pharmacy Technician (Associate's Degree)
This program prepares students to support licensed pharmacists by assisting during patient consultation, counter dispensing and prescription preparation. In either a retail or hospital pharmacy, technicians may stock and inventory prescriptive and over-the-counter medication, maintain written or computerized patient medication records, count and pour medication into dispensing containers, assemble daily supplies of medication, repackage medication, prepare commercially unavailable medication, and deliver medication to patient rooms.
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Pharmacy Technician (Diploma)
This program prepares students to support licensed pharmacists by assisting during patient consultation, counter dispensing and prescription preparation. In either a retail or hospital pharmacy, technicians may stock and inventory prescriptive and over-the-counter medication, maintain written or computerized patient medication records, count and pour medication into dispensing containers, assemble daily supplies of medication, repackage medication, prepare commercially unavailable medication, and deliver medication to patient rooms.
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U
UEI
Request More Information Locations:
El Monte, CA
/ Ontario, CA
/ Van Nuys, CA
/ San Bernardino, CA
/ San Diego, CA
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Pharmacy Technician (Diploma)
Pharmacy Technicians assist Pharmacists in a variety of tasks involving the packaging, distribution, compounding, labeling and recording of drugs. UEI's Program can prepare you to work along side a Registered Pharmacist in just eight months.
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Western Career College
Request More Information Locations:
Emeryville, CA
/ San Jose, CA
/ Antioch, CA
/ Pleasant Hill, CA
/ Sacramento, CA
/ San Leandro, CA
/ Citrus Heights, CA
/ Stockton, CA
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Pharmacy Technician (Associate's Degree)
The purpose of this program is to provide the student with the theory and hands-on experience necessary for an entry-level position as a pharmacy technician capable of working in any pharmacy environment.
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Pharmacy Technician (Diploma)
The purpose of this program is to provide the student with the theory and hands-on experience necessary for an entry-level position as a pharmacy technician capable of working in any pharmacy environment.
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Pharmacy Technology (Associate's Degree)
The purpose of this program is to provide the student with the theory and hands-on experience necessary for an entry-level position as a pharmacy technician capable of working in any pharmacy environment.
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Pharmacy Technology (Diploma)
The purpose of this program is to provide the student with the theory and hands-on experience necessary for an entry-level position as a pharmacy technician capable of working in any pharmacy environment.
While no college degree is required to become a pharmacy technician, it is often better to have completed courses in pharmacology. In rare cases, a pharmacist will allow a person with a high school diploma to apprentice under that pharmacist. An apprenticeship will start very low on the totem pole requiring a person starts out as a pharmacy aide. This means that the person begins his or her career by running the cash register, delivering filled prescriptions to patients, and answering the phones.
In May 2004, California passed a law requiring pharmacy technicians to be licensed. While you do not need a license to work in other states, it still can work to your advantage to complete a training course. Salaries are higher for those who have completed training and passed the national certification exam.
Schooling for a pharmacy technician is often a twenty-week course. Expect to pay about $1,500 to $2,000 for the full program. Often, pharmacy technician programs can be learned at home through an online or correspondence school. Classes include:
- Anatomy - the parts of the body
- Customer Service - learn how to relate to even the fussiest of patients
- Medical Terminology - prefixes, suffixes, and terminology used in the medical world
- Law and Ethics - the legalities of dispensing medications including malpractice and liability for prescription errors
- Pharmacology - common classes of medications are taught in detail. You will learn common side effects, how the medications work, and what diseases each class of medication is used to treat
- Pharmacy Computers - learn the more common computer programs used in pharmacies throughout the world
- Physiology - how the parts of the body all work together and what diseases are prevalent to each organ
- Practice - learn about the different career paths open to pharmacology students and the general background for each career sub-division
Pharmacy technicians work closely under the eye of the pharmacist. Pharmacy technicians can work in a retail pharmacy, such as a drug store or department store. They may also work in a hospital pharmacy or at a mail order or internet-order pharmacy. A pharmacy technician's duties include:
- Accepting and double-checking prescription forms from a patient
- Receiving call-in prescriptions from medical personnel
- Counting out pills to fill a prescription
- In some cases, the pharmacy technician mixes liquid prescriptions
- Entering prescription information into the computer system
- Printing out prescription labels
- Handling insurance information and processing co-pay information
- Enter patient information into the computer system
- Print out necessary paperwork, including warnings, to enclose with the prescription
- Verifying all pertinent information is included on the prescription form and that the doctor has written things out legibly
- Prepare insurance claim forms, if necessary
- Price the prepared prescription
- Maintain the inventories of all prescription and over the counter medications
- In a hospital or nursing home location, pharmacy technicians read patient charts and then dispense that medication to the proper patient
- Often, a pharmacy technician working in a hospital or nursing home setting prepares twenty-four hour's worth of medications at one time.
When a pharmacy technician prepares a prescription, he or she cannot hand it to the pharmacy aide until the licensed pharmacist has checked the prescription over. The pharmacist makes sure that:
- The correct paperwork, including any important warnings or contraindication information, has been include
- The right medication was bottled
- The label contains proper dosage information
- The insurance paperwork is processed correctly
- The medication was counted or mixed properly
Currently, pharmacy technicians are high in demand. As more baby boomers reach the latter part of their lives and a vast portion of the population are battling issues like high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol, the need for prescription drugs is skyrocketing. Pharmacists are having troubles keeping up with the patient load, so they require pharmacy technicians to help them with a number of time-consuming tasks.
Because pharmacy technicians spend a large portion of their workday lifting boxes, reaching for items on high shelves, or standing at a counter, it is important to realize that you must have some physical strength and the ability to stand for long periods. Pharmacy technicians' hours depend on the location in which they work. A retail store will carry normal store hours, usually seven days a week from at least 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. In a hospital or residential care facility, these locations are open twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week, so overtime and off-shift work are often required.
Entry-level pharmacy technicians can expect to earn between $19,500 and $33,000 per year. After four years of experience working under the guidance of a pharmacist, the pharmacy technician moves up to level two and can expect to earn between $25,000 and $35,500. Salaries throughout California tend to lean towards the high end of those scales.
Have we forgotten a California pharmacy technician school?
If you know of a pharmacy technician school in California that we don't have listed here, please let us know by emailing us at info@california-vocational-schools.com.
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