Pharmacy Technician Schools in Wyoming
Wyoming’s Pharmacy Technician of the Year for 2010 is a certified pharmacy technician with an associates degree who now teaches pharmacy technology and also advocates for the profession at conferences. One of her strong interests is in proper utilization of pharmacy technicians — in other words, how to structure their job responsibilities to best serve the needs of patients, and of the industry as a whole.
Pharmacy technicians are arguably the mainstay of the pharmacy, performing duties that range from customer service and data entry to reconstituting and preparing drug therapies.
The pharmacy technology field is growing and developing, and it can be a good career choice for people with strong math aptitude, good customer service skills, and mild to moderate stress tolerance.
Pharmacy Technician Certification and Registration in Wyoming
Wyoming mandates both pharmacy technician certification and on the job training for licensing as a pharmacy technician. A person may register as pharmacy technician in training, though, for up to two years while fulfilling requirements for licensing. Registration is a fairly simple process, consisting of turning in an application. An applicant must be at least eighteen and must have a background free of serious drug charges. While some states will not register an applicant who has drug abuse in their past, Wyoming will consider it. The applicant does have to provide evidence of successful rehabilitation.
A pharmacy technician in training must pass a national board exam within two years. Initial certification consists of a multiple choice examination, background check, and small fee. Renewal requires twenty units of continuing education every two years. A pharmacy technician training program is designed to help prepare students to pass this exam in as little as ten-weeks. A formal education is also viewed highly by employers.
Currently, Wyoming recognizes only the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board as a certifying agency. A pharmacy technician certified in another state by the Institute for the Certification of Pharmacy Technicians will need to go through the certification process again. Fortunately, they have very similar requirements.
Formal education is not required by the state, but can prove helpful with test preparation as well as attaining job skills. Students may have the option of obtaining either a certificate or associates at a pharmacy technician school.
Pharmacy Technician Salary and Job outlook in Wyoming
Externships, which provide real world work experience, can be another benefit of a comprehensive program. A representative of an unnamed college confirms that people often get hired at the places where they have externed, but it “depends on your attitude.” Both attitude and education are important in a field like that of the pharmacy technician, where there are many openings at the entry level, but progressively more people compete for selective positions. Across the nation, retail jobs are the most abundant, but among the lower paying. The average salary for a pharmacy technician who works at a drug store or health store is $27,590. Grocery stores average $28,610 while department stores average only $25,660. General hospitals, on the other hand, pay at about $32,710 Positions at specialty hospitals or pharmaceutical companies are even more lucrative, but they can be in short supply.
A bit of bright news is that Wyoming’s annual salaries for pharmacy technicians are above the national average by more than $1,500 per year. The Labor Bureau reported an average of $30,400 for a year of full-time work in Wyoming. There is some geographic variance within the state. The highest average salary within Wyoming is for the non-metropolitan regions of the Northeast. Here pharmacy technicians average an impressive $32,940. The state’s largest cities report salaries that are almost as good. Casper is at $31,990 and Cheyenne, $31,250. The Southeastern non-metropolitan regions lag somewhat behind the state average, weighing in at $26,860.
Across the nation, the Federal government is known to be a well paying employer. The US Department of Veteran Affairs was among the employers posting for pharmacy technicians in Wyoming in late 2010. They advertised a starting salary of $31,315.
