Pharmacy Technician (Inpatient)
What you'd do
This position functions primarily in Pharmacy Service in the inpatient care areas within the Salisbury VA Medical Center. The incumbent serves as a staff pharmacy technician, preparing medications for inpatients in various setting, including sterile product preparation.
Major duties
For unit-dose medications, performs final review of medication when prepared by another technician, to be dispensed to inpatient areas (med-carts, ward stock), and/or fills unit-dose carts independently without secondary review when necessary Prepares inpatient drug orders including all medicinal dosage forms such as, intravenous admixtures, oral solids, etc., according to established procedures and protocols Inventories and replenish emergency carts Collects drug use evaluation data for quality improvement purposes as required Operates and maintain complicated pharmacy equipment such as unit dose prepackaging machines, automatic dispensing machines, IV compounding machines and other pharmacy devices Compounds and/or reconstitutes oral or external medications (non-sterile). This includes calculating and converting to proper weights and measures the amount of drug or solution to be used Answers questions from pharmacy and non-pharmacy personnel regarding drug distribution Identifies basic therapeutic problems such as duplicate therapy with drugs in the same class and alerts the pharmacist to the possible need for clinical intervention Assists in total quality improvement activities by participating in medical center and service process assessment and action teams and continually seek to improve services Maintains, verifies, stocks, and replaces outdates in patient care area automated machines Assists with inventory management and ordering of medicines Compounds sterile products for use in inpatient and outpatient areas of the hospital Maintains a clean environment for compounding sterile products Preferred Experience: Inpatient Pharmacy Experience Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional Work Schedule: Full-time - Rotational - 7:00am - 3:30pm or 8:00am - 4:30pm, off tour assignments, subject to the needs of the service Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized EDRP Authorized: Not Authorized
What you need to qualify
Basic Requirements: Citizenship. Be a citizen of the United States. Education or Experience. (1) None Required. (2) For all grade levels and positions that accept both education and experience to qualify, equivalent combinations of qualifying education and experience that total at least 100% are qualifying. The combined percentage is determined by adding total qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level to the education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level. Certification. For positions above the full performance level, the employee must pass a national certification exam and hold an active national certification through either: (1) Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) OR (2) National Healthcareer Association (NHA) English Language Proficiency. Pharmacy Technician candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by38 U.S.C. § 7403(f). Preferred Experience: Inpatient Pharmacy Experience Grade Determinations GS-7: Candidates must possess one year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level. Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs). In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: (a) Knowledge of pharmacy technician principles, practices, concepts and theories providing for sound independent work. (b) Knowledge of the computerized prescription process and input of prescriptions and medication orders or electronic equivalent. (c) Ability to resolve pharmacy/medication issues with other members of the healthcare team, Veterans and external customers. (d) Ability to train developmental pharmacy technicians and students. (e) Ability to dispense medication or sterile products following all regulations, policies and procedures to ensure safe medication distribution. (f) Ability to troubleshoot automated dispensing equipment (ADE) or technology platforms/databases. Assignments. For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, complexity and range of variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time. Pharmacy technicians at this level are nationally certified and can work autonomously using independent judgement to perform a full range of duties. These pharmacy technicians mentor and train lower graded pharmacy technicians in the practice setting. They assist advanced/specialized pharmacy technicians and participate in performance improvement initiatives. At this level, pharmacy technicians use independent judgement to perform the full range of duties in the pharmacy. They also function as staff pharmacy technicians in various locations of the pharmacy, including pharmacy contact centers and other non-traditional pharmacy locations, with minimal oversight. Certification: Must pass a national certification exam and hold an active national certification through either: PTCB or NHA. Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.
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