Community Pharmacy Technician Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

By | September 2, 2023
Community Pharmacy Technician job description, duties, tasks, and responsibilities
Community Pharmacy Technicians perform various duties, including labeling and distributing prescribed medicines. Image source: bls.gov

This post presents complete information on the job description of a community pharmacy technician, to boost your knowledge of the work they do.

It highlights the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities that usually make up the community pharmacy technician work description.

What Does a Community Pharmacy Technician Do?

The community pharmacy technician is often supervised by a registered pharmacist in retail pharmacy.

The community pharmacy technician job description usually contains duties such as labeling and distributing prescribed medicine and giving information and counsel to patients with regards to how to make use of their medicines.

He/she is also trained to give advice to members of the community on the aspects of over-the-counter medicines, living a healthy lifestyle, and managing minor ailments.

Community pharmacy technicians may also have the responsibility of offering over-the-counter drugs for sale and selling of additional items supplied by the pharmacy, including baby food, photographic supplies, toiletries and cosmetics.

A lot of community pharmacy technicians go through extra training that makes them able to carry out final accuracy checks on medicines that have been dispensed before being apportioned.

It is not uncommon for customers to seek advice and information from the community pharmacy technician with regards general health or utilization of medicines.

In this case, he/she must be able to discern the best time to refer the client to the pharmacist or other health care expert.

Quite often, the community pharmacy technician’s role may involve offering services that have to do with health checks and smoking cessation.

His/her work may also include carrying out activities such as management of inventory, compounding non-sterile medications, maintenance of records and organizing prescription drug orders.

This position will also require the candidate to be involved in organizing monetary transactions, control of inventory, filing third party claims and keeping of records.

The community pharmacy technician is commonly employed in hospitals, retail and mail order companies, nursing homes, and assisted-living facilities.

Community Pharmacy Technician Job Description Example/Sample/Template

The community pharmacy technician is often engaged in multitude of different duties, tasks, and responsibilities which make up their assignments as shown in the job description example below:

  • Giving assistance to pharmacists with a variety of other tasks such as stock ordering and checking
  • Organizing individual record of customers’ prescriptions by inputting it in the computer
  • Giving training to other members of the pharmacy unit
  • Giving assistance to nursing homes or institutions
  • Compounding uncomplicated dilutions
  • Producing mixtures and simple ointments
  • Maintaining and supervising the control of stock within the community hospital or retail stores
  • Collaborate with the community pharmacist on important issues in relation to dispensary and technical support within the community pharmacy
  • Give support to the community pharmacists in ascertaining security and effectiveness in provision and sale of medicines
  • Supervision of stock of pharmaceutical materials in line with established guidelines
  • Supervision of all purchasing functions of the community pharmacy department.

To prepare a resume for the position of community pharmacy technician, information from the sample job description shown above can be used in creating the professional experience section of the resume.

Community Pharmacy Technician Requirements: Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities for Career Success

To be employed as a community pharmacy technician, one is usually required to possess the following skills, knowledge, and abilities, which is crucial to succeeding on the job:

  • A relevant diploma from an accredited high school with a completed application package
  • A completed registration with a valid Pharmacy Technical Certificate
  • Ability to document or carry out assessment using computer software skills
  • Ability to perform basic arithmetic and fundamental aspects of Algebra
  • Exceptional skills in the use of medical abbreviations, terminologies and sufficient skills in responding to telephone calls
  • General mastery of basic chemistry.