Pharm tech appreciates her role
Good Samaritan Hospital

Profile: Pamela Fair, Certified Pharmacy Technician
By KEN MOSIER
For Health Care Today

Pamela Fair started working in pharmacies for the simplest of reasons — she needed a job. "Bettman's (Pharmacy) hired me and he taught me so much," Fair said. "I just stuck with it and I really enjoy it."

Fair has continued working in pharmacies over the past 32 years — the last 28 at Good Samaritan Hospital.

"When I started, they didn't have any (educational) programs so it was basically on-the-job training," she explained. "My certification was just a test — you did some studying and then you took a test."

Fair recently completed a distance-learning course and met the requirements to call herself a Certified Pharmacy Technician. "It just shows that you took that extra step and got certified. Basically you are doing the same job (as a non-certified tech), but an employer looks at that person as having a little extra. They like to see that when they hire new technicians," she said.

Pharmacy techs can work in retail sales, in nursing homes, do home care, work in a hospice, a mail-order pharmacy or in a hospital. At Good Samaritan, Fair works in the intensive care unit.

She is supervised by the clinical pharmacist on the unit. "We do whatever the pharmacist tells us to do. We are not licensed and we are not registered," she said. "Anything I — or any technician — do has to be checked by a pharmacist.

"I can make IVs. I can transcribe orders — doctors' orders. And I deal with the Pyxis machine out here." (A Pyxis machine resembles an ATM machine but dispenses drugs instead of cash.)

People interested in being a pharmacy technician need good math skills. "You have to be very strong in math and medical terminology," Fair said. "We use a lot of math when we make our IVs and, even though the pharmacist is checking us and you have to explain to him what you have done."

Fair said she has no regrets on her choice of career field, but wishes she had started earlier. "But I like where I am and what I am doing right now. It's a very good field — very demanding, and it is serious business when you go into pharmacy. This is people's lives you are dealing with."

	One of Pamela Fair's jobs is to prepare IV solutions in the ICU pharmacy.

"I can make IVs. I can transcribe orders — doctors' orders. And I deal with the Pyxis machine out here." (A Pyxis machine resembles an ATM machine but dispenses drugs instead of cash.)

People interested in being a pharmacy technician need good math skills. "You have to be very strong in math and medical terminology," Fair said. "We use a lot of math when we make our IVs and, even though the pharmacist is checking us and you have to explain to him what you have done."

Fair said she has no regrets on her choice of career field, but wishes she had started earlier. "But I like where I am and what I am doing right now. It's a very good field — very demanding, and it is serious business when you go into pharmacy. This is people's lives you are dealing with."