Pharmacy Technician

Program Coordinator: Nargis Wardak, 847.635.1684, nwardak@oakton.edu

The Pharmacy Technician program is designed to teach fundamentals of being a pharmacy technician for those interested in becoming pharmacy technicians, pre-pharmacy students, or those interested in completing the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board Examination. Classes are taught by a Registered Pharmacist or Doctor of Pharmacy. The course covers various pharmacy practice settings, drug classes, basic physiology, drug interactions, pharmacy calculations, and daily pharmacy operations. Employment opportunities are available in career settings including retail/independent community, hospital, mail order, managed care, pharmaceutical industry, long term/home health care and nuclear pharmacy.

Admission Requirements:

• High school graduation or High School Equivalency Certificate ¹ or concurrent enrollment in high school.
• Foreign high school graduates or students with foreign college credits need to send English translated copies of their transcripts to Education Perspectives www.edperspective.org/oakton. Students with foreign college credit should request a catalog match.
• Age requirement: 16 years or older.
• Placement into EGL 089 and EGL 090 or EGL 097 or EGL 098 or higher.
• Placement into MAT 095 or higher.

This is a limited enrollment program. For more information, contact the health career specialist at healthcareeradvising@oakton.edu.

¹

As of January 1, 2023, the High School Equivalency Certificate became the State of Illinois High School Diploma. High School Equivalency credentials received prior to that date remain valid.

Health Career curricula are governed by specific objectives, rules and regulations formulated by the College, accrediting bodies and participating clinical facilities. Students should familiarize themselves with these standards. Students should also be aware that failure to maintain satisfactory progress in technical courses may significantly delay completion of the curriculum or may result in the student being dropped from the curriculum. Each student’s right to participation in the clinical portion of the curriculum is also contingent upon compliance with the rules of the clinical facility. The clinical facility has sole discretion to determine when its rules have been violated.

Clinical placements require a health assessment, certain immunizations, yearly vaccines, substance abuse testing, criminal background check, specific skill certification (i.e., CPR/BLS) and health insurance. The requirements represent an additional cost to the student.

All Oakton College Health Career students in a program with a clinical component must have “clear” criminal background checks and drug screens in order to participate in any and all clinical components of any health career program courses.

To comply with state statutes and clinical affiliation agreements, and to provide a safe environment for students, employees, and patients cared for by students, those accepted into Oakton’s health career programs will be required to complete a criminal background check and drug screening through a company contracted by the College. Health Career students will be charged a fee for this service.

Timelines for completing criminal background checks and drug screens may vary among the various programs. Deadline dates for each program will be provided by the individual department chairs at the time of a student’s acceptance into a health career program.

Students without a clear criminal background check and/or clear drug screen will not be allowed to enroll in clinical practicum courses or attend clinical programs. This would further necessitate that the student withdraws from the health career program at that time.

Students who refuse a criminal background check and/or drug screen will not be considered “clear” and will not be authorized to participate in the clinical component of the health career program, necessitating withdrawal from the program at that time. Individual results of student background checks and drug screens are considered confidential.

Determination of whether or not a student can participate in the clinical component of a particular health career program will be communicated to the respective department chairs by the Background Check/Drug Screen vendor. Students may view their personal results on the vendor’s website.

Pharmacy Technician Certificate

11 Semester Credit Hours; Curriculum: 0282

This certificate can be completed in one semester.

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Courses for a Certificate
PHT 125	Pharmacy Technician	9
PHT 251	Clinical Practicum	2
Total Hours		11

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the Pharmacy Technician program, the student will be able to:

1. Identify generic names, brand names and classifications of medications.
2. Describe common drug interactions and contraindications.
3. Describe proper storage of medications.
4. Describe state and federal laws and regulations/requirements pertaining to pharmacy technicians.
5. Demonstrate accurate order entry, processing, and distribution of medications.
6. Discuss patient safety and quality assurance as they relate to the role of the pharmacy technician.
7. Demonstrate professional duties of the pharmacy technician.

Pharmacy Technician Courses