20-20 did not post my post YET! Re: My ABC 20/20 post !

[Guest guest]

Dear ALL,

It took me hours to write the exact thing I wanted to convey to ABC

20/20 on Saturday, while I post-poned visiting my mom because I KNEW I

had to do this and a whole week had gone by. I posted it between 7 and

8 pm pacific standard time. To DATE it has never been posted. And in

fact I have not seen Joe's post on 20/20 nor Dora's nor 's!

So I read all the recent updates to the link that Lori from Nevada

gave us. I then tried to post the following:

" Hi ABC 20/20!

I am not sure WHY, but I posted a VERY long discussion regarding the

need for a mandatory NATIONAL minimum standard of education for all

pharmacy technicians on Saturday, April 7 at approximately 7 to 8 pm

Pacific Standard Time, but to date it has not appeared in this " User

Comment " section. I am a pharmacy technician educator in California.

In addition, my good buddy another pharm tech, also posted and her

post has not showed up either. She however posted immediately after

the airing of the show.

Two other educator colleagues, one from Colorado and the other also

from California, also pharm techs also posted and their points of view

are not here either. What is the criteria for posting or getting one's

point of view heard?

Did I/we step on too many toes? or just the right/wrong ones?

PLEASE POST This!

Respectfully,

Jeanetta Pharm Tech Educator "

Just wanted you all to know!

Respectfully,

Jeanetta Mastron CPhT BS

PS. IF YOU HAVE HAD THE SAME PROBLEM, PLEASE TRY TO POST IT AGAIN, BUT

BEFORE YOU DO, MAKE A COPY AND SAVE IT. THEN POST IT HERE FOR THE

RECORD THAT YOU TRIED AND AFTER COLLECTING AS MANY AS POSSIBLE I WILL

MAKE HARD COPIES AND CERTIFY MAIL THEM to 20/20 each week as they

come in. Thanks Jeanetta

>

> Okay people I just now got to post my thoughts on the 20/20 segment on

> pharm techs and errors.

> It did not post it so I am not srue if it is because it is long or if

> it is because they have to read it and judge whether or not they

> should post it.

>

> Dora did they ever post yours?

>

> You are welcome to post it here!

>

> Here is mine - LONG as you have probably guessed.

> Dear ABC 20/20,

>

> I was unable to see the piece on pharmacy technicians and pharmacies.

> However I have seen what video you do have on your site. I am not sure

> if it is the same one that aired on March 31, 07 in full or not. I

> think from what I have read above from my constituents: pharmacy

> techs, CPhT's and pharmacists, that you presented a one sided story.

> That being said it does not negate ONE important fact that YOU RAISED.

> ONE that I and many others have been trying to get professional

> pharmacist and technician associations and the government to change

> for years.

>

> Just a year ago I wrote on my FREE PTCB Study Group site () that

> if something was not done about Pharmacy Technician Education by the

> end of 2006, that I was going to write to Oprah Winfry for an expose!

> (I am sure the post is still there). I was about to get things

> together when I became sick with a month long flu in Feb /March 2007

> and then my mother suffered a heart attack just recently. So I have

> been a bit behind the goal. THEN YOU all came out with THIS expose.

> From what I gather you did not depict this in the best light and both

> pharmacy professionals and patients are suffering. THIS was my biggest

> FEAR in doing an expose and one reason I hesitated at all. Being

> RESPONSIBLE when one yells " FIRE: is extremely important. Patients

> are not trusting pharmacists, some are not taking their meds according

> to the previous post that I have read. This may have been poor

> journalism on your part. But the ONE FACT that you spoke of in your

> video remains TRUE ! TECHS need basic EDUCATION and TRAINING.

> Something that even studying for PTCB or ExCPT exams is NOT, CANNOT

> and Will NEVER provide!

>

> MOST people study from a REVIEW book, what clearly is NOT review for

> them, but rather a NEW subject with a foreign technical language. Then

> they take the exam and hope to pass. IF they pass they may get a job

> as a certified pharmacy tech and THEN the training of skills to fill a

> script begins. NO previous education, no mock labs on what to look out

> for BEFORE being thrown in the river to sink or swim. Then some not

> all, pharmacists have the nerve to complain to store management techs

> are not good enough or fast enough to do the work because they need

> better or more techs. Only a few RPh's have complained to chain

> corporate offices that techs need more education. And those that

> complained to chain corporations have got the following answer: we

> cannot afford to pay educated tech wages.

> Then some chain stores got smart and decided to train their own techs

> in their own mini training sessions that last about 2 to 3 weeks. But

> that does not make someone a technician or at least a good one. It IS

> however, one way for the chain stores to CONTROL the state boards of

> pharmacy to get them to `approve' their training course as an

> acceptable means in lieu of a full length accredited vocational

> pharmacy technician program that instead would last about 6 months to

> 1.5 years, be more rigorous and encompassing, include mock labs, math,

> law, pharmacology, Sterile IV Preparation AND an EXTERNSHIP of hands

> on training without pay. Yes it does cost more to the tech, but what

> education is not worth the cost? Can you say a LIMITED one?

>

>

> I think that current certified pharmacy technicians, CPhT's do an

> awesome job given the fact that MOST of them did not go to a tech

> school, had to pick up what they could on their own and then learn on

> the job most of what they do or know! But then again I also think that

> ALL medical personnel should have standardized training in their field

> of expertise. I keep reading the responses from pharm techs here on

> your site who keep repeating that that pharmacists have the last check

> of any drug that goes out. While true this statement ONLY shifts the

> 20/20 report of error or blame to pharmacists. The errors made are few

> and are not to be excused as our Canadian friend pointed out, HOWEVER

> they are NOT solely the responsibility of the pharmacy personnel of

> the day who filled a specific drug. In part some of the errors are due

> to poor process, policy and practice. Technicians are PART of the

> TEAM, and therefore do also contribute to error. I do not use the

> excuse of the pharmacist is the last one to check and I do not teach

> this either. IF the tech did not make the error in the first place

> there would be less error for the pharmacist to find or sadly miss!

> JUST statistics! Yes by law the pharmacist MUST be the last one to

> check and okay a Prescription for errors and many other things. The

> error is HUMAN and the errors will continue to be made with or without

> further tech education and certification. BUT we know that quantity of

> errors have gone down in ratio to the number of scripts being filled

> due to certification where it is required. AND I am here to say that

> the quantity of errors can continue to go down with EDUCATION and

> Certification. What is needed is a NATIONAL STANDARD OF EDUCATION of

> for pharmacy technicians that we can all agree upon. That ABC, is the

> biggest problem!

>

> So you want an expose? HERE IT IS!

>

> A. Many states have NO requirements for technicians at all (this is

> in constant flux and some will tell you that we now have half the

> states with requirements and that it is way better than before etc etc

> painting a rosy picture. Yes it is better, but why would any doctor

> want an uneducated nurse to work side by side with? Likewise why would

> any pharmacist want an uneducated tech to work side by side with?.

> B. Some states require techs to be CPhT's, but don't check Continued

> Education there after.

> C. Some states only require registration: a fee to have a permit one

> to work as a tech, but no other qualifications.

> D. ONLY two states require education: Utah and Washington

> D.1 California dropped the education requirement when in 2004 it

> replaced 1500 hours of on the job training with passing the PTCB (one

> does not have to have any specific tech training or education pass

> the test). So now if you pass the PTCB you can get a job a as a tech

> without even having touched a drug let alone a drug bottle! Progress

> isn't it? I can tell you that the Big Chain stores once used the 1500

> hours of training so that they could get their own clerks to move up

> to tech and then not pay them as much as the school formally educated

> and trained tech. But that 1500 hours is about 8 months of full time

> work. Most clerks back then were part-time. So it took a long time for

> the chains to train someone to be a tech and pay them less than the

> schooled educated and trained tech. The Big chains are also partly

> behind `the pass the PTCB and become a tech quick scheme in Ca' too!

> Since one can now take an exam about 24 weeks a year, the Big chains

> can now move a clerk into tech position much faster and STILL pay them

> less than they would a school educated tech. I ask you do you think

> that reading a book and passing an exam is equal to 6 months of formal

> school education, mock labs and an on the job externship training?

> Duh? Can we all say " NO " ?

> D.2.Texas allows one to be a tech in training up to 1 yr and then the

> trainee must pass the PTCB exam, still no formal education.

> What does this say about the exam? Is it stringent enough or watered

> down so that those who do not have on the job training or experience

> or schooling can pass it? In its defense it does have 80% passing

> rate. I think it needs to be harder, but until we require education

> the pharmacology will be almost nil.

> E. Chain Drug stores don't want to pay for educated techs, some chains

> already had to pay more for certified techs. They don't want to pay

> more for certified techs either.

> F. Now that about half of the states require certified techs, many

> Chain Drugs stores train them `in-house' to become certified. This

> keeps the cost of rising salary down, as they are now providing the

> training (and a very little education if you call it that).

> E.1 But the training that is provided by the Chain stores is one-sided

> and no ( or very, very little) hospital training is provided, yet the

> PTCB exam requires hospital knowledge. Once again accredited schools

> teach both retail and hospital pharmacy. I ask you " So who is making

> your mother's IV? "

> The PTCB exam does NOT require that the applicant to test taker have

> previous tech training or education. It does require a HS diploma or

> equivalent and 18 yrs old.

> F. Currently there are a few states that allow more than one test to

> be used to qualify someone to be called a certified pharmacy

> technicians. A few states accept both PTCB or ExCPT as such tests.

> MOST states that do require certification only accept PTCB. But again

> MOST states that have require their techs to be certified have only

> just recently done so. And only about ½ the states require

certification.

> F.1. Certification will become more confusing as more tests are

accepted.

> G. Some states require background and fingerprint checks others do

> not. Again I ask you WHO is filling your prescription and making YOUR

> mother's IV? Funny how ALL of the RPh (LVN, RN MD ETC ETC) must have

> a criminal free background, but not all techs.

> H. NOT all pharmacy technician education is alike, some are `DIPLOMA

> MILLS' even those that are approved by some states. There is no

> standard of education and no requirement for education for these hard

> working responsible paraprofessionals. Try being a medical or dental

> assistant without going to school and passing a test!

>

> More over this is why I know so much! I have personal emails and

> public posts from members of my site discussing the problems on the

> job. Most are about pharmacies or pharmacists not training properly

> and expecting no errors and faster work. Go figure!

>

> In the pharmacists behalf, READ the post from the pharmacist who said

> that they left retail because the corporations would not give them

> another pharmacist to fill 700 -800 scripts! One pharmacist said

> filling a script every 3 minutes or 20 an hour is expected. In one 12

> hour day that is 240 scripts or 1400 plus scripts in a week!!!!! Same

> pharmacist says at least 5-6 minutes is needed. Now I am sure that

> this is about counseling because the tech is doing the filling while

> the pharmacist is doing the checking and counseling. So BOTH

> pharmacists and technicians seem to blame the corporation and the

> corporationsT

>

> My concern has been that during the last decade

> 1. We have demanded more and more from techs and pharmacists,

> especially retail ones,

> 2. There are more drugs on the market than ever to know about

> including drug allergies, drug interactions and duplication of therapy.

> 3. More drug sound-a-likes and look a-likes are on the market.

> 4. There are more scripts being filled than ever due to baby boomers

> 5. Techs, certified or not, are doing more dispensing tasks than ever

> before so that more counseling can be done by the pharmacists, yet

> there are less pharmacists on staff to counsel with more scripts

> because the big chains do not want to hire more pharmacists, mean

> while they open more and more pharmacies on every corner and say that

> there is a pharmacist shortage.

> 6. Meanwhile some Chain, Mom and Pop pharmacies and hospital

> pharmacies across the nation are hiring techs that are teenagers and

> some that are not certified and some that just came off the street

> BECAUSE this is with in the law of that particular state.

> 7. To top it off more drugs that have been used for years are being

> REMOVED from the market.

> 8. State Pharmacy Technician Registration, Certification, Background

> fingerprint check, Education and Training and CE requirements ALL VARY

> across the USA. Some states do not even call the pharmacy technicians,

> pharmacy technicians, but instead clerks, assistants and helpers! This

> is also a ploy to keep wages down. There is no incentive for the

> average worker being paid min wage or just above to LEARN as much as

> one has to learn for the PTCB exam and to keep focused on the job.

> 9. Sooooooooooo much more that I know there is no room to print.

>

>

> YET we do NOT demand EDUCATION! or any other qualification as a whole!

> Washington and Utah have it RIGHT!!! Including state testing!

>

> Who the heck am I to say all of this?

> HOW do I know all of this?

> I am a PTCB Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT 1996). with a BS in

> Chemistry 1977, I have taught a pharmacy technician program since

> l995, and I am the Pharmacy Technician Program Director for a state

> approved and ACICS accredited private-post secondary school pharm

> tech program in the state of California since 1999 . I have served as

> a an active member and or officer in CSHP, AAPT, and NPTA. I have

> authored articles in Today's Technician and am a text reviewer for

> many publishers. I have written and presented many technician CE's and

> was awarded the National Pharmacy Technician Educator of the Year

> 2002, where upon in my acceptance speech I personally CALLED for a

> NATIONAL STANDARD of EDUCATION for Pharmacy TECHNICIANS. This was the

> FIRST time this topic was ever broached in any national professional

> meeting in THIS country. ( I thought eggs would be thrown at me!

> Instead a huge applause from a standing audience of over 1000

> technicians gave thunder to the room. Most were not even certified! ).

>

>

> How can I speak for what is going on outside of my walls? I will add

> this:

>

> I founded and own two : one for pharmacy technician

> educators and the other is for those studying for the PTCB exam. I

> began the second one because I felt there were too many people who

> were studying for the PTCB exam who were asking basic educational

> questions on another site. This was back in l999. Since then NOTHING

> has changed much. There are more states that now require the exam, but

> this has only been in the last 2 years. The main PROBLEM is EVEN the

> experienced techs have NO real basic foundation of pharmacology. The

> majority of those who are experienced techs studying on my site do not

> seem to know pharmacy law or math outside of their respective areas of

> practice. I decided back then that there was a NATIONAL NEED for a

> REQUIREMENT and a STANDARD for EDUCATION for the PHARMACY TECHNICIANS

> before CERTIFICATION, which MUST include formal education, mock labs,

> externship and job placement. Finally PTCB got on the wagon to promote

> this idea and then ACPE, but the BIG Chains don't want to see this

> happen as they do not want to pay for the educated technician.

> Underlying that is the very small profit from prescriptions due to

> insurance coverage restrictions and the public outcry of the high cost

> of prescriptions.

>

> Asking someone to buy a book, to study a book to pass an exam in order

> to become certified in any field is like asking someone to become an

> EXPERT in how to perform a task or duty without the benefit of having

> tried to do it or asking someone with expertise how to do, would you

> want your certified plumber to say : I have never unclogged a drain or

> fitted piping before but I have read a book on it? Likewise would you

> want your surgeon to have cut up cadavers but never studied anatomy

> and physiology? Would you want your pharmacist to take a drug off of

> the shelf without knowing pharmacology? They NEED experience as a

> trainee in addition to the education. Likewise leaning on the job to

> be an electrician can be ELECTRIFYING if you do not have the book

> knowledge or education to go along with it. BOTH are required. Can

> you say JOURNEYMAN? So knowing HOW to do something is NOT the same as

> doing it. Doing something is not the same as knowing why or the

> problems associated with doing it. Knowing the problems associated

> with doing something is not the SAME as actually looking for them

> finding them. Likewise knowing how or being able to physically to

> count tablets and what drug to take off of the shelf and where to find

> it and actually removing it from the shelf does not mean you know

> pharmacology and can protect yourself and the public. Knowing and

> understanding pharmacology CAN help avoid medical errors, as well as

> personal injury. It is my opinion that knowing more about the drugs,

> allergies, interactions, duplication of therapy, and other potential

> problems such as drug look-a-likes and sound- a-likes etc etc etc is

> a MUST . Let us not forget MATH calculations! So in hospitals

> uneducated techs are being trained on the job to make IV's. Is this

> the best we can do? YET for a medical assistant they have to have

> education and training. Hm…I have no problems knowing that hospital

> staff is going to train the techs, but I still think and I KNOW that

> the tech should have MORE formal education and training under his or

> her belt before hospital staff are distracted by training from

> scratch! Hospitals are not a Mcs of Drugs (as referred to by one

> other poster above), not unless you want your wife, child, grandfather

> or mother to be on liquid McBLT. I do believe there are errors and

> potential errors because we are human. They are being reported and

> they are doing CQI continuous quality improvement and there has been a

> national attention within the pharmacy profession for the last 5-8

> years to address this issue and to cut down on the errors. We have

> also moved away from blame to root cause analysis, removal of the

> problem and education to avoid the same or similar errors. We now

> provide counseling to those who inadvertently made the error. Which

> leads me to your interviewing the poor young girl who made the error.

> I HOPE that you ONLY did so with the approval of her counselor, she

> has enough self-imposed guilt to contend with the rest of her life.

>

> FINALLY, I teach both adults and high school students. My students aer

> the cream of the crop who are in honors classes and AP classes. They

> know MORE than science and math average over 18 certified tech does.

> MOST of them want to become doctors, dentists, surgeons, pharmacists

> and nurses when I am done with them they perform as if they have 1 yr

> experience with the exception of insurance claims. Maturity is a horse

> of a different color, but when it comes to performance my proctorship

> sites for externship on the job training most ALWAYS ask for the high

> school students first! They interview and only a few have not been

> accepted because of immaturity. When they take pre-employment or PTCB

> exams they always out score the adults who do not have the same

> educational background as they do. While they can extern while under

> 18 most are 17 they can not get registered, certified or work until 18.

>

> AGE has nothing to do with it. Detail oriented, focus, lack of

> distraction, Knowledge and experience lead to less error. But even as

> on other posted pointed out adults make errors too. As another

> pointed out he is a pharmacist and was an 18 yr old tech at one time.

> Being knowledgeable, experienced and focused is the best way to avoid

> errors. But errors will happen because we ARE human.

>

> Techs need formalized education for the knowledge.

> Techs need mock labs and hands on externships for the training

> Techs need to apply the above for experience.

> Pharmacists and techs need less distractions.

> Pharmacists need more qualified techs.

> Chains need to listen to the needs of the professionals (PharmD)

> Chains need to use the training that hey have as the externship in

> conjunction with school provided education.

> State board of pharmacies need to listen to the pharmacists and not

> chain big bucks.

> States need to implement quotas for pharmacies to ensure public safety

> (tech/pharm ratios, pharmacist to script ratios, script per

> hour/minute ratios etc).

>

> Okay I am done …..for now…..but know I have more on this subject to

> fill a time capsule.

> Take one capsule for information now and one every few days as needed.

>

> You probably won't post this if you are connected to big chain stores

> or any other entity that you do not want to offend that I have

> mentioned. But if you do, I commend you in advance!

>

> Respectfully,

>

> Jeanetta Mastron CPhT BS

> Pharmacy Technician Educator and Program Director

> Founder/Owner of (FREE)

>

>