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Being on the Rx Side of Healthcare

The Pharmacy Technician Associate degree is designed to provide you with knowledge, laboratory skills, and field experience so that you can assist pharmacists in providing medication and other healthcare products to patients. Students will gain an understanding of medical and pharmaceutical technology, pharmacology, pharmacy record keeping, pharmaceutical techniques, and pharmacy law and ethics. A pharmacy technician supports and assists the licensed pharmacist with ordering, stocking, and packaging prescription and over-the-counter medicines.

All students wishing to enroll in the Pharmacy Technician Associate degree program will be required to pass a background check prior to the start of the program.

Your Learning Experience

American National University’s Pharmacy Technician Associate degree program provides you the skills you need to succeed in a pharmacy environment. This will include:

• Performing pharmacy technician duties in accordance with state and federal laws while demonstrating professionalism and ethical behavior. This will teach students a commitment to patient safety and well-being.
• Effectively communicating with both patients and other medical professionals with strong written and verbal communication skills, ensuring clear and accurate exchange of information.
• Applying knowledge of medical terminology, pharmacology, and pathophysiology to prepare and dispense medications accurately. This also includes performing precise pharmaceutical calculations to guarantee safe medication dosing. Additionally, students will leverage current technologies, such as PioneerRx, to efficiently process and dispense prescriptions, ensuring accuracy and compliance with healthcare standards.
• Maintaining clerical tasks, including maintaining patient records, processing insurance claims, managing patient profiles, and ensuring proper documentation for medicine delivery. Students will keep accurate inventory records and contribute to consistent quality improvement efforts.
• Understanding drug applications and ensure the proper preparation, labeling, and record-keeping of pharmaceutical products. Facilitate safe prescription administration and delivery in various healthcare settings.
• A proficiency in the preparation of sterile parenteral products while adhering to industry safety and regulatory standards that are necessary to working in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and home healthcare settings. This includes training for the Compound Sterile Product Technician Certification through the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board to support roles in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and home healthcare settings.
• Two 120-hour, for a total of 240 hours, externships so that students gain hands on experience in a pharmacy. (See if there is an existing externship site in your local area.)

Students will take the Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT) exam offered through the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board or National Healthcareers Association as part of PTA288 Pharmacy Tech Exam Success Class.

Students who successfully complete PTA290 and meet all PTCB criteria may be eligible to sit for the Certified Compounded Sterile Preparation Technician (CSPT) exam through PTCB. CSPT is an advanced PTCB credential for certified pharmacy technicians that verifies competency in sterile compounding and aseptic practice.

PioneerRx

Our pharmacy technician programs’ enhanced software learning experience is provided by PioneerRx. PioneerRx is a real-life pharmacy software system used across the United States, which will prepare students for externship and their new profession as a pharmacy technician. Learn more about PioneerRx’s capabilities at pioneerrx.com, and see how PioneerRx ranks against its competitors at Pharmacy Software Reviews

Pharmacy Technician Associate Degree Program Outcome:

PTCE Pass Rates for first time attempts: 75%

Where will your degree take you?

• A retail pharmacy
• The military
• Local physician office
• Local, non-chain pharmacy
• A hospital
• Long-term Care Facility

Programmatic Accreditation

The pharmacy technician Associate’s degree and diploma programs at American National University are programmatically accredited by the Pharmacy Technician Accrediting Commission (PTAC), a collaboration between the American Society of Health–System Pharmacists and the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education.

In addition to ANU’s institutional accreditation from the Distance Education Accrediting Commission, the programmatic accreditation achieved by ANU’s pharmacy technician programs is a further validation of the quality of the program. Through a rigorous evaluation process, ANU has demonstrated compliance with 15 competency standards.

Check out our “Not-What-You-Would Expect” Guide to Pharmacy Technician to learn more about this high-demand field.