Extract

Before the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, a labor shortage of qualified pharmacy technicians was affecting health-system pharmacy. This crisis has been exacerbated by the pandemic.1 Discussion of this labor shortage has taken place at various levels; however, we have struggled as a profession to take concerted action to mitigate the problem. A 2017 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) survey on technician training programs found that there were 31,010 training positions available, but only 11,504 trained technicians were graduating from ASHP- and Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE)–accredited training programs.2 Subsequently, a 2018 ASHP national survey pertaining to the hospital pharmacy workforce identified a rise in the number of vacancies for pharmacy technician positions.2

There are many factors contributing to this labor shortage. Most recently, Hintzen et al3 published a commentary in which they noted that pharmacy technician wages were insufficient to support career longevity and to be career enabling. The commentary highlighted standardized training and increasing educational requirements as having essential roles in moving the needle on wage potential.3 The 2017 Pharmacy Technician Stakeholder Consensus Conference identified variation in state requirements for licensure as a pharmacy technician to be a barrier to moving toward national standards for training and education.4 Pereda et al5 further determined that technician certification is currently a voluntary process not required by all organizations or boards of pharmacy.

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