After just receiving a surgery on her wrist, a patient is stopping by to pick up his prescribed medication. He is greeted by a smiling pharmacy technician wearing blue scrubs and a student ID who gives him the carefully measured medication, and the patient walks away, feeling better already. After working at the pharmacy through seventh and eighth period, the Pharm Tech student meets up with her other classmates wearing identical blue scrubs, and loads the bus to head back to the school. 

Practicum in Health Science: Pharmacy Technician is a new course this year being taught by Tyler Terry. Through this program, students can become certified pharmacy technicians by the end of the course. Terry took a similar pharmacy class when he was in high school, and worked as a pharmacy technician for four years during his undergraduate degree in college with the certification he earned. 

“As long as I knew I wanted to be a teacher, I had this class in mind,” Terry said. “I highly encouraged the district to start this program when it didn’t previously exist, so, in a way, this is kind of a project for me, a personal goal.”

As part of this class, students spend 10 weeks of the first semester at Cedar Park Regional Medical Clinic shadowing pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. 

“It’ll definitely benefit students by letting them see everything that they’ve been learning in health science classes being applied in real settings,” Terry said. “It gives them real exposure to patients and to doctors that they can have conversations with, and ultimately, when they’re done with the class, they will be a real health care professional with a certification that they can put on their resume and job applications.”

In the second semester, students will visit local retail centers such as CVS and Walgreens to apply their skills as pharmacy technicians.

“We’re going to the hospital for 10 weeks, but we’re also going to be displaced in our own kind of area, and I’m most looking forward to the single displacement,” senior Kim Dao said. “Terry is going to come visit us here and there, but we’re really going to be working by ourselves in a new environment, and I think that’s the best part.”

Terry said this class is beneficial because pharmacy technicians are in high demand right now, and they’re being paid more now compared to the rest of the market than they ever have in the past.

“It’s a way to make money and a way to gain experience in a lab and a professional environment so that I can both prepare myself in the future and be able to support myself while I’m going through college,” senior Charlette Koltak said. “I also get to see the hospital and check out other aspects of the healthcare industry that I haven’t gotten to, so I can still look at healthcare and maybe [find career] options for after college or for the future.”

Rather than focusing only on a career in pharmacy, this class is an introduction to many different healthcare careers, and students will have the chance to learn about other healthcare careers while visiting the hospital.

“I have a goal that they will have a better understanding of what they want to do for themselves in healthcare in the future,” Terry said. “I want them to learn and grow and feel more confident, [and] regardless of which career they choose, learning more about the medication dispensation processes, drugs, patient interaction and customer service will benefit them.”

Students learn to use needles, syringes, pills, molds and more to practice their skills in class. 

“I’m excited for the labs that we have coming up,” Terry said. “We’ve got cool equipment, and the labs that we have will be to practice real pharmacy skills such as compounding medications [and] filling prescriptions.”

Practicum in Health Science: Medical Assistant is another practicum class only offered in the mornings, so for those who have schedule conflicts with the medical assistant class, Pharm Tech gives students a chance to take a different practicum class to further their education in healthcare. 

“I want [this class] to grow,” Terry said. “I want more people to be aware that it exists and that it has the same opportunities as the other practicum class, and I just want students to have options and choose what’s of the most interest to them.”

Health Science Theory is required to be taken before taking Pharm Tech and it is recommended, but not mandatory, that students take classes such as Anatomy and Physiology, Principles of Health Science and Medical Terminology as well.

“I’m really excited,” Terry said. “Taking a class very similar to this has helped me so much and has led to opportunities for me to make connections in healthcare, [so] I’ve really been looking forward to the chance to help other students have the same opportunity.”