Purpose

The NPA Pharmacy Technician course is an GPhC accredited course that emphasises the highest standards of excellence. Upon successful completion of this course, your Pre-registration trainee pharmacy technician will earn a distinctive and professionally recognised qualification.

The course goes through the NPA’s own in-house quality assurance process, giving you the reassurance that your trainee receives the highest quality of training. It is an integrated course tailored to suit the needs of the learner and the pharmacy, at a time where pharmacy is changing, and the responsibility and professional recognition of pharmacy technicians is growing.

Outcomes

On completion your student can apply for professional registration with the GPhC as a pharmacy technician. Studying this course and qualification also:

• Develops professional attitudes and behaviours
• Provides the learner with the skills and knowledge for progression within the pharmacy
• Ensures your student will be able to carry out accuracy checks on prescriptions
• Enables your trainee to free up the pharmacist – allowing more time for patient care and increased service provision
• Brings an enhanced skill mix within the pharmacy team
• Provides underpinning knowledge in biological and chemical principles as well as medicinal treatments for common medical conditions
• Equips the student with leadership skills

Once qualified the role of a pharmacy technician is vital in supporting community pharmacy by:

• Providing safe and effective pharmacy services
• Supplying medicines and devices to patients
• Achieving the best outcomes through a patient’s medicines
• Assembling or checking medicines for prescriptions
• Providing information to patients and other healthcare professionals

Suitability

This course is suitable for any member of the pharmacy support team, subject to entry requirements, working for a minimum of 14 hours per week, wishing to embark on a career as a pharmacy technician.

Please download and review this document for detailed information about the entry requirements.

Please ensure you have visited the Important information page found here 

Delivery

The course comprises 22 self-study books that constitute the underpinning knowledge and competency, to be completed over 27 months.

Knowledge-based modules cover topics such as:

• Person-centred approaches
• Health and safety
• Management of pharmaceutical stock
• Biological and chemical principles
• Medicinal/ non-medicinal treatments for common diseases and conditions
• Microbiology
• Health promotion and well-being in pharmacy services
• Pharmaceutical science
• Safe manufacture of quality medicines

Competency-based units cover topics such as:

• Personal development
• Contributing to service improvement in the delivery of pharmacy services
• Undertaking medicines reconciliation and supply
• Assembling and checking dispensed medicines and products
• Receiving, validating and issuing prescriptions

Assessment

Assessments are either summative written assessments or competency-based assessments which consist of evidence collection over time that will be submitted online via e-portfolio software – both are compiled into a portfolio of evidences.

Module assessments include:

• Various written tasks, such as creating guides or presentation to demonstrate knowledge. See an example here
• Multiple choice questions
• Case studies
• Calculation papers

Competency-based assessments include:

• Evidence gathering activities including professional discussions with an NPA assessor and Expert witness observations

Each book must be completed and sent via the e-portfolio software to your student’s allocated internal NPA assessor who will grade and provide feedback on the work. In order to pass a module assessment, you must have achieved 80% overall and have attempted all questions.

 

More information on the technician course including videos and slides can be assessed here.