Pharmacy Technician

This is a practical one-credit course that provides the tools and skills necessary to get a strong start
with the transition for new students at NDSCS. This course will introduce students to campus
resources, policies and procedures and cover topics such as time management, study skills, goal
setting, wellness, financial literacy, and professional development. (F, S, O)

Students will demonstrate the ability to perform pharmaceutical calculations. Emphasis will be placed on basic computations, use of measuring tools, dosage computations, compounding calculations and solution preparation. Topics covered include dosage calculations including pediatric doses, conversions between systems, ratio and proportion, dilution and concentration, milliequivalents, units and intravenous flow rates, and compounding sterile and extemporaneous products. Prerequisite: ACT math score of 19 or completion of ASC 092. (F) (O)

This course is designed to introduce the student to ordering, inventory control and record keeping in a retail pharmacy. The student will be exposed to merchandising and pricing both prescriptions and OTC merchandise. The student will also be exposed to third party billing, rotation of stock and medication returns, Medicaid and Medicare. Prerequisites: PRMT 101, PRMT 102, PRMT 111. (S)(O)

This course will focus on preparing the student technician for the preparation of all IV aseptic products. Including, but not limited to IV piggyback medications, large volume IV's, total parenteral nutrition and chemotherapy agents. The student will have appropriate knowledge, skill and demonstration of aseptic technique, measuring medications, calculating drug amounts, laminar flow hood cleaning and appropriate professional garb requirements. This is a lecture course. Prerequisites: PRMT 101, PRMT 102, PRMT 111, PHRM 123, and PHRM 124. Corequisite: PRMT 216. (S)(O)

This course will focus on preparing the student technician for the preparation of all IV aseptic products. Including, but not limited to IV piggyback medications, large volume IV's, total parenteral nutrition and chemotherapy agents. The student will have appropriate knowledge, skill and demonstration of aseptic technique, measuring medications, calculating drug amounts, laminar flow hood cleaning and appropriate professional garb requirements. This is a lab course. Prerequisites: PRMT 101, PRMT 102, PRMT 111, PHRM 123, and PHRM 124. (S)(O)

During this course students will master the concepts needed to interpret, dispense, label and maintain patient profiles in various pharmacy settings. Topics included in this course are communication skills, abbreviations, dosage calculations, policies and procedures of The Joint Commission, inventory control, medication safety and medication reconciliation. Students will master the top 200 drugs as well as the commonly used over-the-counter medications. This is a lecture course. Prerequisites: PRMT 101, PRMT 102, PRMT 111, PHRM 123 and PHRM 124. (S)(O)

Students will master the skills needed to prepare medication orders and prescription orders for patient use and dispensing. This is a laboratory class; students will utilize computer software for retail and institutional settings as well as manual preparation of pharmaceutical products. Corequisite: PRMT 217. Prerequisites: Successful completion of PRMT 101, PRMT 102, PHRM 123 and PHRM 124. (S)(O)

In this course students will be introduced to the concepts of extemporaneous product preparation, weighing, measuring of solid and liquid products, labeling and dispensing of these products and the chemical concepts required for their preparation. Students will be introduced to the concepts involving stability and compatibility of various preparations. Prerequisites: Successful completion of PRMT 101, PRMT 102, PHRM 123 and 124. Corequisite: PHRM 221L. (S)

This class is the laboratory class for PHRM 221. In this course the student technician will master the skills needed to interpret, weigh and measure ingredients specially ordered by the physician for extemporaneously compounded products, and dispense these compounds in accordance to approved pharmacy practice standards. Prerequisites: Successful completion of PHRM 101, PHRM 102, PHRM 123 and 124. Corequisite: PHRM 121. (S)

Students who have completed all of the course work in the Pharmacy Technician program qualify for this course. Students will participate for a minimum of 120 hours in a licensed community pharmacy setting, supervised by a registered pharmacist. The duties and tasks to be performed will be pre-determined based on classroom instruction to reinforce competencies. The duties and tasks to be performed will be agreed upon by the faculty, student and supervising pharmacist to guarantee learning. Performance activities are to include: customer relations; following workplace rules, procedures, ethics and legal parameters; processing of prescriptions including compounding, counting and pouring, packaging and labeling; inventory and stock operations including control, ordering and pricing, data entry and record-keeping. Prerequisites: Successful completion of all core curriculum courses with a grade of "C" or better. (S)

Students who have completed all of the course work in the Pharmacy Technician program qualify for this course. Students will participate for a minimum of 120 hours in a licensed institutional (hospital) pharmacy setting, supervised by a registered pharmacist. Students will be assigned activities and will be evaluated in the following areas: compliance with the institution's policies and procedures, perform billing operations, use of drug dispensing systems, compound, package and label medications, process data on electronic systems, prepare sterile products, use of proper procedures in working with controlled substances, inventory maintenance, use of technology including automated dispensing machines and record-keeping. Prerequisites: Successful completion of all courses with a grade of "C" or better. (S)