Location
Graniteville, SC
Classification
2-year Public
Discipline
Pharmacy Technician
After more than four decades, Aiken Technical College has grown into a multi-service, two-year comprehensive college offering numerous educational opportunities in college transfer credit and noncredit health, public service, business, industrial engineering, nuclear, and computer technology programs.
Part of ATC’s allied health programs, its ASHP & ACPE-accredited Pharmacy Technician certification program uses state-of-the-art instructional technology and scenario training to prepare students to become pharmacy technicians. Program coordinator and instructor, Lisa Jones, focuses on equipping students with strong, real-world skills, patient care knowledge, and the legal and ethical behaviors fundamental to this important job. In addition to online and classroom lessons, she has students participate in off-campus clinical training as well as on-campus labs, which includes using Science Interactive’s hands-on experiments.
Preparing Students with the Right Skills & Experiences to Become Pharmacy Technicians
ATC’s Pharmacy Technician certificate provides comprehensive training so students can work as pharmacy technicians under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist. In addition to math and pharmacology courses, students gain experience in medications and orders, dosage calculations, sterile and non-sterile compounding concepts, billing, inventory management, patient safety, technology and informatics, regulatory issues, and quality assurance.
Professor Jones partnered with Science Interactive to deliver an engaging and effective lab experience for pharmacy tech students in her hybrid courses. Her goals included:
- Simplifying the process of creating a consistent and effective lab experience for each student in her course.
- Using both hands-on and virtual simulations to more directly connect the concepts of lessons and lectures with experiences that replicate a real pharmacy setting.
- Taking preparation beyond knowledge acquisition to ensure a learning environment that more deeply engages them in collaborative experiential learning activities that develop strong problem solving and critical thinking skills.
The Benefits
Creating a Consistent Pharmacy-like Experience in a Campus Lab
Part of the reason Professor Jones uses Science Interactive is to remove the burden of sourcing materials so that she can focus on the areas that will help drive better student outcomes: constructive feedback and student reflection.
Prior to Science Interactive, she would spend valuable time venturing to different places to track down materials. Sometimes she found materials. Sometimes not enough. Sometimes not all. When she did find all of the materials, it became costly and created budget concerns. When she didn’t, it created an inconsistent lab experience.
To remove these challenges, she selected hands-on experiments, kits and lessons from Science Interactive’s Pharmacy Technician offerings that are aligned with her course learning outcomes.
“Having everything together and in one place makes it easy for students to go get their kit at the bookstore—they don’t have to purchase it separately because it’s rolled into a course fee—and then come to campus to do the lab portion together in groups. I spend less time tracking down items and more time focused on teaching and learning.”
This ensures her students can participate in the same kind of lab activities they’ll experience in a real pharmacy.
“They get real-world practice, and it shows them the possibilities of what they can do. For example, making a real ointment—that’s something they will really do in the future—and this works to get them excited and eager for the coursework and their future. The hands-on labs we do together create an enriching experience that demands a level of accountability and ownership over their learning, just as it would in a real pharmacy. ”
Further, the hands-on kits are aligned to the competencies and outcomes required for ASHP/ACPE accreditation, making it easier to support those requirements.
Setting Up Students for Success with Guidance & Teamwork
Professor Jones looked to design her pharmacy tech courses with laboratory components that could engage students in ways similar to how they would work in a pharmacy.
She was confident in the quality of each lab because they are designed by Ph.D. scientists at Science Interactive and peer-reviewed by other instructors. The discipline as a whole is also certified by Quality Matters, a global organization leading quality assurance in digital learning. Professor Jones could also customize the labs to align with her courses and teaching style. Just as important, she purposefully aligned the labs with her lecture topics to ensure students could connect concepts to real-world application.
“The set up of the experiments not only gives students what they need to conduct the experiments, but helps break down procedural steps as if they were doing it in a real-world environment.”
In addition, she used the multimedia and lab management platform to further guide students, as well as incorporating collaborative learning techniques for students.
“The videos helped students see how the steps should go before they even start the procedure. The ability to upload photos gave my students the opportunity to reflect on their own work so they can see where they may want to make improvements.”
Because teamwork is essential to work successfully in a pharmacy, Professor Jones teams up students and provides peer-to-peer work where they learn to double check each other’s work. They also learn to spot each other’s weaknesses and strengths while building each other up.
In addition, Professor Jones incorporates virtual lab simulations as online components of her courses. This helps to maintain course affordability and to reinforce the hands-on learning and her lecture topics. This also allows students to still participate in learning activities that otherwise might be too difficult to replicate in a campus lab setting, for example certain drug dispensing systems or customer service experiences.
“I do evaluations with all of my students, and the feedback has been so positive. They love the experience, and even sometimes choose to donate any of their extra supplies. They really want the program to thrive so others can experience it, and this helps us continue to do what we do and inspire more students.”
-Lisa Jones, Program Coordinator, Aiken Technical College
Hands-on kits purpose-built for Pharmacy Technician courses are ready to ship direct to students or to bookstores so you can save time and don’t have to handle sourcing, coordinating, or any other logistics — delivering hands-on experiences easier than ever.
How to Use Pharmacy Technician Labs to Create a Lab from AnywhereOn-campus Programs: Better prepare students with pre-labs before they even step foot into your lab Online Programs: Create an effective and authentic lab experience for student who never step foot onto campus Blended and Hybrid: Supplement F2F learning with high quality online learning activities or ensure your online students have the same quality learning experience as on-campus students Vocational Training: K-12 vocational training that include pharmacy technician programs Onsite: Train, re-train, and provide continuous improvement for hospital and clinical personnel |
Whether pharmacy technician courses are online or include a blend of on-campus & online components, there are a lot of moving parts to think about. With digital and hands-on labs, ready-made pharm tech kits, and high-quality curriculum, instructors can be confident they’re teaching the skills needed to achieve course competencies—all while staying within budget and better supporting the ASHP and ACPE accreditation efforts of programs.