Through a new partnership with online healthcare education provider Heath Ed Today, Southern Regional Technical College (SRTC) will begin offering a Pharmacy Technician Program in October. The new program is a non-credit offering and is delivered through SRTC’s Economic Development Department.
“This new program is a good example of how the Economic Development Unit at Southern Regional Technical College (SRTC) fulfills its purpose. The Pharmacy Directors at the major hospitals in the SRTC service region expressed a need for trained Pharmacy Technicians. The Economic Development Unit found this noncredit program that will provide the training in the required skills that students will use to be a successful Pharmacy Technician. The curriculum also prepares the students for the Pharmacy Technician certification examination,” commented Dennis Lee, SRTC Vice President for Economic Development.
These courses are highly interactive and provide students with an enriched learning experience. The Pharmacy Technology program will be taught by a Registered Pharmacist and will also have 24 hour a day instructor support and course mentors available through the e-learning portal. Additionally, there will be engaging labs, exercises, and course videos. The course fee includes all textbooks, workbooks, and relevant student materials.
“Healthcare is rapidly changing and expanding, and with that comes new opportunities for everyone involved. Pharmacy technicians play a vital role in helping us to provide compassionate and safe care to our patients at Colquitt Regional. Whether it be through supporting our pharmacists or nurses, regulating our drug inventory and dispensing, or providing direct patient care through education and medication history encounters, the work done by our technicians directly impacts that quality of care we are providing at our hospital. Southwest Georgia and our hospital could use more candidates that see Pharmacy Tech as a career path in healthcare and invest in this program at Southern Regional Technical College to prepare them for the workforce,” commented Matthew Clifton, Pharm.D., Director of Pharmacy Services at Colquitt Regional Medical Center.
This comprehensive 50 hour program will prepare students to work as a pharmacy technician in hospitals, retail, or other pharmacy settings and to take the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board’s PTCB exam. There is also a required 80 hour clinical externship.
Course content includes: pharmacy medical terminology, the history of pharmacy, the pharmacy practice in multiple environments, pharmacy calculations and measurements, reading and interpreting prescriptions and defining drugs by generic and brand names. Through classroom lecture and hands on labs, students will review dosage calculations, drug classifications, the “top 200 drugs”, I.V. flow rates, sterile compounding, dose conversions, aseptic technique, the handling of sterile products, total parenteral nutrition (TPN), dispensing of prescriptions, inventory control and billing and reimbursement.
For more information on the new Pharmacy Technology program at SRTC, please contact Dennis Lee at (229) 227-2414 or by email at dlee@southernregional.edu.
SRTC offers over 155 degree, diploma, and certificate programs that are designed to get you quickly into your desired career, and 27 general education courses that transfer to the University System of Georgia institutions and 19 private colleges and universities in Georgia. SRTC has instructional sites located in Ashburn, Cairo, Camilla, Moultrie, Thomasville, Tifton, and Sylvester for the convenience of our students. The College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). SACSCOC is the regional body for the accreditation of degree-granting higher education institutions in the Southern states. For the most up-to-date information on registration, class dates, and program offerings, log on to www.southernregional.edu.