Pharmacy Aides

Pharmacy aides carry out administrative duties in pharmacies. Usually aides are cashiers or clerks.

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They usually carry out clerical duties like stocking shelves, handling money, answering phones, and other jobs as designated by pharmacists or senior pharmacy technicians.

Some states have a bit of overlap in the job titles/duties of aides and pharmacy technicians. Aides usually work with and interact with pharmacy technicians on a daily basis.

At the pharmacy I work at, the aides usually do the intake of prescriptions.

Pharmacy Aides:

  • accept prescriptions, (for mor information about prescriptions, see What Is A Prescription?)
  • ask if the person has gotten prescriptions at our store before (in other words, do we have a profile in our database for them yet)
  • ask if their address/phone/prescription insurance is all current (this is crucial for correct billing and copay information... and therefore, good customer satisfaction)
  • ask about any medication allergies (this is essential!! If current allergies are not asked about, the patient could recieve a product they could have an allergic reaction to)
  • and give the current wait time (so the customer would know how long they will be waiting or when they'll be back for the order)

The responsibilities of aides at the independent retail store I worked at include:

  • light cleaning,
  • filing of original and phoned in prescriptions,
  • filing of narcotic prescriptions,
  • greeting and assisting customers,
  • ringing up customers at the register (processing credit/debit cards, Flexible Spending Account cards and handling cash),
  • and asking a pharmacy technician or pharmacist for assistance when necessary.

Aides (just like technicians) will refer all questions about prescriptions, health matters, and information about drugs to a pharmacist.  Even pharmacy technicians MUST refer clinical-type questions about medications, interactions, side effects, etc, to the pharmacist.  

Sometimes retail pharmacy technicians will start out as aides. Working as an aide is a good way to “get your feet wet” in the pharmacy field.

Often their skills as an aide give them a good grounding in how a pharmacy works.

It definitely gives them a head-start on delivering superb customer service.

It gives them a “bigger picture” vantage point and gives them the advantage of developing better problem solving skills as a technician.

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