Alta High senior Anna Black knew she was interested in a medical field, but she found her likely career path when she enrolled in the new pharmacy technician program at Canyons Technical Education Center.

“It’s really cool,” she said. “We learn medical terms and about different medicines each week so I’m already getting that introduction to the field. As a pharmacist, I’ll be able to help someone without all the blood and gore.”

She, along with Hillcrest High senior Lillie Phillips and Corner Canyon High senior Ellie Blankenstein, had just finished the weekly quiz on medications. Next, they were going to learn how to make blister packs.

Phillips wanted to enroll in the new medical course.

“I already have taken anatomy, physiology, intro to health sciences and CNA (certified nurse assistant) classes so this class is a new experience and it’s a lot of fun,” she said. “I want to become a veterinarian so a lot of what I’m learning will give me that core understanding and knowledge.”

Blankenstein wants to work in the psychology field.

“Once I earn my pharmacy tech certificate, I can work in the field while I’m in college,” she said. “Learning all the medications will be helpful in my career.”

While the students acknowledge there is a lot of memorization, they’re quick to acknowledge their instructor, Makenna Mitchell, supports them by not only making assignments fun, but also “redirecting us to correct something when we realize we didn’t get it right,” Phillips said.

With just weeks into the course, they know the difference between creams, lotions and ointments by the texture and simple versus compound medication.

During the class, students reviewed the advantages of blister packaging versus medication in a pill bottle including easier to track medications and convenient to carry. Mitchell questioned why long-term facilities may prefer the blister packs and students quickly responded with it provides increased safety and quick checks to identify if a resident had taken their medication.

The three seniors, along with their classmates, counted Smarties or Skittles using pharmacists’ spatulas on silver trays by fives, practicing as a technician would do it in a pharmacy. They placed them in individual doses before sealing and labeling the month’s mock supply of medication.

They worked at lab tables in front of a mock pharmacy, which was stocked with over-the-counter medication bottles and on the shelves, other pill bottles and boxes filled with beads and beans, were available for student to pull to fill a pretend prescription. The pharmacy includes a landline to take orders by phone as well as a computer to check the patron’s prescription and refill number, the patient’s address and phone number, medication delivery method and other information.

“They can pull up a patient’s profile for a prescription, then fill it by counting the drugs on the tray and labeling it before selling the prescription to a patient,” said Mitchell, who has been a pharmacy technician for the past decade.

She said that students will explore the differences between pharmacies; CTEC’s mock pharmacy has sections to represent both one they would see at a hospital as well as in the retail world.

“This gives them the familiarity of both kinds of pharmacies,” she said.

Soon, laminar flow hoods will be installed so students will wear protective gowns and gloves while they learn how to draw medication from a vial to insert and prepare IV bags for patients. They also will learn how to compound medication in a sterile setting.

“Maybe that would look like crushing a tablet with a mortar and pestle and mixing it with syrup to make it available for a child to take if they can’t swallow a pill,” she said, adding that students also will follow the compounding log, fill out appropriate forms, print correct labels and check it with her, as an acting pharmacist, for accuracy.

This mock pharmacy and lab are new to CTEC, said Janet Goble, Canyons Career and Technical Education director.

The CTEC pharmacy tech program is new this year and at the completion of the program, the enrolled students, seen here packing mock medication, have the option to test to become certified. (Julie Slama/City Journals)

“We remodeled the tech center starting last year so there’s a lab, a mock pharmacy and a lecture classroom for the program, which serves about 25 students in both the morning and afternoon,” Goble said. “It provides students another viable pathway in the medical field.”

Mitchell said students, who attend class for 2.5-hours per weekday, also earn concurrent enrollment credit through Salt Lake Community College.

“This first term is a lot of medical terminology so they’re memorizing more than 200 drugs – their brand and generic names and their drug class and what the drug treats. We’re also talking about pharmacy law, all the regulations and standards for both Utah and nationally, and they’ll do a pharmacology section as well, learning about the individual body systems and the drugs that help with those body system,” she said.

During the program, students need to complete an unpaid 180-hour state-required externship as part of their pharmacy tech licenses. Mitchell already has lined up a mix of hospital, retail, independent community and compounding pharmacies for students.

In the second semester, the class will discuss more about compounding and pharmacies, complete their externships and prepare students to take their exams.

“We’ll be talking a lot about insurance, so they’ll gain a good understanding of what a commercial insurance is, the difference between Medicaid and Medicare and the different parts of Medicare. They’ll put in insurance into the pharmacy system and bill it as well,” she said.

At the end of the program, students will receive a Canyons School District certificate of completion.

A national certification test also is required for students to earn their pharmacy tech licenses.

The program itself is working toward the American Society of Health System Pharmacists accreditation.

“All the students this year, when the program is accredited at the end of the school year, will have attended an accredited program through ASHP,” she said.

Mitchell said there is a demand for pharmacy technicians.

“Pharmacies are desperate for technicians. There’s been a shortage recently so right now, getting pharmacies fully staffed has been a hard thing,” she said, adding that an average starting salary may be about $20 per hour. “For students who have their ultimate goal to be a pharmacist, a pharmacy technician is a good stepping stone because you get experience with how the pharmacy works. You go into pharmacy school having a basic understanding of medications and what that specific medication does. When they’re in pharmacy school, they would understand a lot deeper about the drugs and how they interact with each other, and what to look for, but this gives them that first overview and understanding.”

Mitchell earned her licensure and worked as a pharmacy tech to pay her way through college.

“I’ve kept with it because I like what I do. The best part for me is interacting with patients, building a relationship with them. There’s a level of trust there and I like helping them work through any problems with their medications or if their medications are too expensive for them,” she said.

Students also will practice both communication, math and workplace skills in the program.

“What’s cool about this program is that they get a lot of hands-on experience,” Mitchell said. “They’re counting medications, they’re learning to answer a phone call and talk with a patient, they’re practicing giving injections and they’re calculating supplies of medications and will know how long an IV bag with last at a certain flow rate. They’re learning a lot by doing.”