New pharmacy tech program fills need for state

The UNMC College of Pharmacy has developed Nebraska Pharmacy Technician Certification (NE-CPhT), in response to a new Nebraska law, LB 37, that requires the state’s thousands of pharmacy technicians to obtain official certification by Jan. 1, 2017.

Judy Neville

Though individual pharmacies or hospitals, and some chains, already required certification, Nebraska was previously one of 15 states to have had no credentialing requirements for pharmacy techs.

Now, about 2,700 technicians must be certified by 2017.

UNMC meets this need with the credentialing, approved by the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.

The program fee is $385 which includes the first certification renewal fee. There are no required textbooks, additional testing fees or lab fees. Several UNMC pharmacy faculty contribute to the online modules, which allow for on-demand lecture and learning tools.

Judy Neville was hired in 2015 to direct pharmacy technician education certification. Neville is 2015-16 president of the American Association of Pharmacy Technicians and a noted author on pharmacy technician education.

Pharmacy techs obtain national certification through two entities — the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) or Exam for the Certification of Pharmacy Technicians (ExCPT). Nebraska now joins just a handful of states with state-specific certifications.

NE-CPhT may be preferable to national options, Neville said. Instead of preparing for a breadth of questions that may not be applicable to your actual job, NE-CPhT is tailored to each technician’s practice setting.

“Rather than rote memorization to pass a formal exam, our state certification is about critical thinking and real-life situations to help reinforce best practices and aid in knowledge retention,” Neville said.

In addition to online modules, candidates participate in a campus visit comprised of hands-on, active learning sessions.

UNMC took the initiative to propose state certification with several goals in mind — one of which is to ease transitioning for the pharmacy community into the new pharmacy regulation.

Nebraska has about 3,800 registered pharmacy techs, only about 1,100 of whom already are certified through national organizations.

“We have pharmacy managers and owners who are reacting to the need for technician certification in order to comply with regulations,” Neville said. “We have techs wondering, ‘Do I have to go back to school?’ ‘Will I lose my job?’

“The College of Pharmacy stepped up to answer a need that we knew our graduates — the pharmacists, the pharmacy owners – would have.”

Enrollment opened Jan. 15 and is ongoing.