Feature Story

The Pharmacy Program Is Keeping Up With The Times

A Chat with Dr. JaNee Mobley, Chair of Pharmacy Technology LAB REMODEL

The Pharmacy Technology Department at Albany Technical College is currently undergoing renovations and updates to include new equipment and updated software. It is vitally important in the industry that we, as an educational institution, prepare our students to be workforce ready and able to adapt to the newest equipment and procedures. At present, we are in the process of reconstructing the community pharmacy lab, a mock pharmacy which represents pharmacies such as Walgreens or Wal-Mart. In addition, the hospital pharmacy lab is nearly complete and closely mimics a real hospital pharmacy setting.

ATC students in the Pharmacy Technology program are trained to become pharmacy technicians and are prepared to work in any pharmacy setting locally or aboard. The advantage of the lab remodel will provide a near real-life work experience. This especially holds true with in hospital pharmacy labs which includes an anteroom in which technicians perform such tasks as gowning, hand and forearm hygiene, labelling, etc., and a cleanroom for compounding medications in a sterile environment. Students will practice full simulation of both the anteroom and cleanroom gaining the full Pharmacy Technology experience as if they were in a hospital setting.

After completing core courses, a pharmacy technology student will begin entry level pharmacy courses which includes pharmaceutical calculations, pharmacy fundamentals, and pharmacology. These three courses are the baseline preparing students for the simulation lab experience in medication preparation with an understanding of how to calculate doses. Hospital pharmacy labs, students will work with needles, syringes, and IV bags. The community pharmacy lab allows students to experience hands-on with tablets or simulated tablets, capsules, suspensions and syrups.

ATC Pharmacology Technology students receive hands-on experience to prepare them

fully before they graduate and go out into the community to work. In the hospital simulation lab, students will complete assignments and labs where they will practice preparing hazardous drugs such as chemo medications.

Locally our students must do clinicals in their last or senior semester. We have contracts and partnerships with Phoebe (Phoebe Worth, Phoebe Main, Phoebe Sumter), also Crisp County, Walgreens, and CVS.

Our former chair, Dr. Teresa Mitchell, has opened up a pharmacy in Baconton, Georgia. We have students who go there and complete their clinicals, which is really exciting. We also have partnerships and contracts with multiple independent pharmacies including Terrell County.

About the Pharmacy Technology Program

Program graduates will be able to perform a variety of technical duties related to preparing and dispensing drugs in accordance with standard procedures and laws under the supervision of a registered pharmacist. Pharmacy technicians help licensed pharmacists prepare prescription medications, provide customer service, and perform administrative duties within a pharmacy setting. Pharmacy technicians generally are responsible for receiving prescription requests, counting tablets, and labeling bottles.

Skills taught in this program will ensure students know how to calculate medication dosage to prepare prescriptions, transcribe prescriptions written by providers, and be proficient in the top 10 medications, including brand and generic names. Students will earn a Pharmacy Technology Associate of Applied Science degree or diploma and will then need to pass the Pharmacy Technician Certificate of Examination. They will then qualify to work as pharmacy technicians in hospitals, nursing homes, retail pharmacies, and other facilities.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR CONTINUING EDUCATION

Degree program graduates may earn a bachelor’s degree from many schools with current credit transfer agreements with Albany Technical College.

For more information about the program, contact Dr. JaNee Mobley, Chair of Pharmacy Technology, at 229.430.3596 or jmobley@albanytech.edu