Expanding Technician Team Skills and Scope of Practice

What does the phrase “expand team skills, expand scope of practice” really mean? Simply stated: Help build the skill set for each of your team members, because when practice is expanded for pharmacy technicians, pharmacists will realize the benefits for their practice expansion to prescriber status.

In July 2019, I presented at the Pharmacy Technician Educators Council’s annual conference. The title of my presentation was “Immunizations: Prepare Technicians for an Advanced Role in This Clinical Service.” The focus was to guide faculty to add content to their lesson plans, as existing textbooks made no mention of vaccines or vaccinations as an area worthy of study. My presentation gave a sequence of topics and tasks that should be incorporated into existing classroom instruction based on vaccine programs in pharmacies.

What I did not realize was that, a short 15 months later, the federal government would provide blanket approval for pharmacy technicians to immunize all ages with any Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)-recommended vaccine after completion of Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE)-accredited training.

While this series speaks of the professional resources that pharmacy technicians can access to affirm their competency and outlines how to apply the skills to a medication synchronization workflow (med sync), we know that it takes legislative action with a level of support by state boards of pharmacy to expand scope of practice to support technician advancement. Then what is the call to action for the individual? Professional development is the action to take.

Let’s look at a couple of scenarios that have brought about practice expansion, then discern how they have served our profession.