Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Cincinnati, Ohio
ASHP constructed the “Statement of Roles and Responsibilities of the Pharmacy Technician” to help guide the profession in the development and growth of pharmacy technician role. This document does not serve to confine the role, but rather create a thoughtful platform for it to flourish and grow. This document inspired work across the profession to standardize certifications, grow pharmacy technician career ladders, and support professional engagement.1 Despite pharmacy technician management being categorized as a valuable and untapped resource to health-system pharmacy in this document, minimal literature or programs have been published to support the expansion of this field. Significant structure, education, and literature has been cultivated around pharmacist leadership and development throughout the decades. The lack of a proportionate investment in technician leadership training has left a tangible disparity and incredible opportunity for the profession to address. Thus, a pharmacy technician leadership residency (PTLR) program was created to train our current and future technician leaders. The program was modeled off the health-system pharmacy administration and leadership residency programs for pharmacists and tailored to meet the needs of our technician workforce.
The purpose of the PTLR program is to provide focused leadership and administrative opportunities to engaged pharmacy technicians who are interested in a leadership position within our department. It is a six-month program with rotations ranging from one to four weeks to develop a group of pharmacy technician leaders to take both formal and informal leadership roles within the department. Residents experience rotations with technician supervisors, pharmacy managers, senior pharmacy leadership, medication safety team, pharmacy educators, and spend elective time exploring non-traditional inpatient services within and outside of the pharmacy. Technician residents get the opportunity to develop skills such as personnel management, project management, schedule development, conflict resolution, meeting management, among other skills that are necessary for to be a successful leader of the technician workforce.
All six of our residents that have entered the program have successfully completed it with plans to have our seventh, eighth, and ninth resident to complete the program next calendar year. All graduates from the program to date remain in the department and have received a promotion into a leadership position within their first six months after graduation. Our succession planning through the PTLR program has allowed our department to develop and retain high-performing pharmacy technicians in lead technician roles with expanded responsibilities and skill sets of technician supervisors. Additionally, the time to fill vacant supervisor positions decreased from over 250 days to under 50 days due to qualified candidates remaining in the department.
The PTLR program’s documented success within our department is built on a reproducible framework that can be extended to other health systems. Expansion of similar programs throughout the profession will be essential to develop and train technician leaders at a rate needed to meet projected professional demand.
References:
1 Schultz et al. ASHP Statement on the Roles of Pharmacy Technicians, American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, Volume 73, Issue 12, 15 June 2016, Pages 928–930, https://doi.org/10.2146/ajhp151014
Back Row, Left to Right: Pete Shea, Robert Rose, Ryan Craynon, Mark Thomas
Front Row, Left to Right: Amber Boland, Krystle Green, Bailey Squibb