Vending machine pharmacist

This is crazy…

Molina Medical Group clinics across America (around 200 of them I believe) use a damn vending machine to dispense drugs rather than have a pharmacy technician do it.  I’m not quite sure what to think of this.

On the one hand, it’s pretty cool that a machine can handle something like this and the long term costs would likely be a lot loss than the average pharmacy technician salary.  On the other, though, it’s a bit scary that machines could one day replace the human element of a pharmacy.  I still believe that people would rather get drugs from other people who can explain the side effects and how to take it, human to human.

What do you think about this?  Will futuristic robots ruin our fair pharmacy?  Will be one day be a slave to those machines?  Will waiting times and human tech’s be a thing of the past?

Or will people just want to deal with another person about the prescription rather than a nameless, faceless piece of metal?

What do you think?

3 Quick Tips to Earn More Money as A Pharmacy Technician

If you are like me, then you probably check out all the pharmacy technician salary guide benchmarks when trying to find out whether or not you’re being paid enough.  (hint: you’re probably not)

I know when I first saw that a tech with my experience could be earning up to $45,000 a year, I felt like I wasn’t getting paid anywhere near enough for what I bring to my pharmacy.  So, I set about trying to figure out how I could get more money.  Here are the three best ways I found that I used to get a 25% pay spike, and many of my colleagues have used to get a raise too.

 

1. Get certified.  Seriously, if you are not a certified tech yet then get it done as soon as you can.  In the next five years, I think it will be mandatory if you want to be a tech so get ahead of the curve.  You get paid a lot more anyway so it is definitely worth it.
2. Apply for new jobs.  Even if you have no intention of leaving, you can go to interviews at rival pharmacy’s or hospitals to see what the going rate is for a qualified tech.  If nothing else, you can use it as bargaining chip to negotiate a raise in your current job.
3. Become a pharmacist.  Honestly, it doesn’t take a lot more to train to become a pharmacist and you will see your income explode if you do this.  Yeah, you’ll have more responsibility but it’s often less actual work and a lot more money than even the highest of tech salaries.

Just by following 2 of these tips, I got my income back in line with what I should have been making and the next step is to go from pharmacy technician to full pharmacist.

What will you do to earn more money?