by Ryan Burton

Created on: November 21, 2007   Last Updated: March 06, 2011

Many young people wish to go into the medical field, and build a fantastic career. Many of whom go into pharmacy, and become either certified (which will probably allow you to make more in income) pharmacists or pharmacy technicians. I speak from 6 years of experience that it is a great field to learn from whether working in a hospital or retail.

I first became a pharmacy technician when I was 20. I originally went to college for a career in radiology (although my real interest was in English) because I needed a career which made the most money. My mother who was working as an RN in the ER for a hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. Then one day, she came upon a position for pharmacy technician at the hospital. Being a little nervous, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. However, the idea of doing something MUCH better than work at McDonald's was a VERY interesting. So I accepted. Ever since I started, I was always asked by family members as to what kind of school did I go to for it. I always shocked them when I said none whatsoever. Although I recommend it. When I started, I had on-the-job training, but I needed a license to practice there, and I had to get my fingerprints taken as part of the process. Still it was rewarding when I learned to fill patient med drawers, and take in the various generic/brand names of drugs (for example: xanax is also known as alprazolam). When you become exposed to the names, its achallenge to remember which is which. After a while, they became stuck in my head.

It was a whole new world to me, but I embraced it. Whether filling med carts, I also learned about charging and crediting patient medication. and helping process MARS (Medical Administration Records). The only thing I wish I could have become was IV certified. Although, that involves math (namely algebra), but managed to help with pre-made IV's that are easy when you can just label them. Still I knew I was missing out.. When I moved along to another hospital in St. Louis, I was introduced to Meditech. It is one of the easiest programs that organizes all you medications at various nursing stations throughout the hospital. You just go in, refill the medication for a particular drug shelf, and move on. Though you deal with the dilemma of drug quantity discrepancies (in case the count is wrong), and you ALWAYS had to be careful if it was narcotic medication. Mostly, I did a lot of

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