The first class of pharmacy technicians is set to graduate from a new Island-oriented version of the program.
Students in the 15-month program, which includes online theory courses taught through Castlegar’s Selkirk College, can take in-person lab classes at Vancouver Island University’s Cowichan campus as well as completing a 10-week practicum in Island hospital and community settings.
In response to the growing need for pharmacy technicians, Island Health joined forces with Vancouver Island University and a college in the Kootenays to train more people for the role, starting in 2022.
One member of the initial Island-based class of eight students is Nanaimo’s Ainslie Horwood, who will graduate from the program in a month.
She said she has appreciated its flexibility.
“I could do the schooling online from my own home in Nanaimo, travel a short distance to Duncan for the lab work, and stay in my home town while completing my practicums,” Horwood said.
Horwood said she felt “well-prepared” for her practicums at the Medicine Shoppe pharmacy and Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.
Island Health board chair Leah Hollins said in a statement that pharmacy technicians play a crucial role in both hospital and community pharmacies, working in prescription processing, packaging and compounding medications, and ordering and tracking inventory.
“Without them, our medication system would collapse.”
In hospitals, she said, they interview patients about their medications so the health-care team has an accurate list.
Applications are open for the program’s next intake, starting in August. Twenty students will be accepted.
Island Health said there are openings for pharmacy technicians in hospitals, long-term care homes and other locations on the Island, with an average starting salary of $50,000.
Hayley Price, also from Nanaimo, has been a pharmacy technician since 2017 and said there is challenge and variety in her work at Cowichan District Hospital.
“Before completing the pharm-tech program, I had no idea what a pharmacy technician was or what they did past counting pills in a retail pharmacy,” Price said. “It is a lot more involved and in-depth than I originally thought but I absolutely love it.”
She said her duties range from dispensing drugs to compounding hazardous medications for the hospital’s chemotherapy-infusion clinic.
More information about the program is available at selkirk.ca/ptec.
