Amanda Abernathy RxTech Spotlight

Speaker: Amanda Abernathy

Amanda Abernathy: Hello, I'm Amanda Abernathy. I have been a pharmacy technician for 17 years. I currently work at UPMC, uh, which is headquartered in Pittsburgh. It's a health system that has, uh, pharmacies throughout Pennsylvania, one in Maryland and one in New York. And I am actually the pharmacy technician training program manager. What that means is that I am building the system-wide pharmacy technician training program and uh also seeking accreditation through ASHP/ACPE for the program.

Amanda Abernathy: For those of you just starting your career as a pharmacy technician, I would advise two things. One, be on the lookout for impostor syndrome, and two, be intentional about your career growth. So for impostor syndrome, you want to look out for feeling like you don't belong, or that other people are more qualified, or that people are gonna find out that you aren't good enough to be there. None of that is true. We all started out at the beginning just like you. When you're having those feelings, make sure you're asking questions about the workflow tasks that are making you feel that way, so you can learn how to do them, um, and feel more confident. It may also help to connect with an experienced pharmacy technician and confide in them and ask them for advice. And for your intentional career growth, make sure you're communicating with your manager about the next steps in the career ladder and what you need to do to get there. You can also ask about advanced pharmacy technician roles and how you can um align your skill sets to uh achieve those higher steps in the career ladder. It's also helpful to pay attention to other roles throughout the pharmacy industry. There may be new exciting developments at other organizations uh that you could help bring into your organization, or if you're looking for a change, there may be other roles that you could work towards in uh joining other organizations. And something that's very helpful in intentionally um building your career. Is participating in professional organizations, um, for example, the Pharmacy Technician Society, TPTS or NPTA, the National Pharmacy Technician Association. At these organizations, you meet other pharmacy technicians, learn about what they do, learn what's happening in their pharmacies. It really opens up a whole new world.

Amanda Abernathy: My career path has not been linear. I started out in outpatient pharmacy at CVS. I had actually applied to run a cash register at the front of the store, and the pharmacy manager intercepted my application and offered to train me as a pharmacy technician. I didn't even know that was a possibility. I thought everyone had to go to college to work in healthcare. Um, and from there, I worked in inpatient. I've worked in discharge medication. I've worked at an insurance company, I've worked in healthcare technology. Um, and I would say there are several things that really helped me build my career to where I am now. The main thing is a combination of passion and hard work, being excited about what I'm doing, interested, engaged in what I'm doing, and then working hard to uh complete the tasks that are part of my everyday job. Uh, another aspect that has really driven my career is just seeing the need and coming up with solutions to fill the need. So, um, for example, one place I worked, I could, I saw the inconsistencies in training and, uh, thought that the workplace could benefit from having. A steady trainer. So I brought this idea to my manager and created the description for the role, and um my manager was actually able to create this role for the department. And this kind of leads to my last point. For advancing my career, one of the biggest things that has kept me moving forward is self advocating. So, in this example with the trainer, not only did I see the need to come up with a solution and work with my manager to create that role, I also self-advocated to explain to my manager and leadership why I was the best person to fill that role. Um, and that did work. Uh, they didn't even realize that they needed a trainer and didn't even, uh, have. The foresight really to uh see how to leverage my skills until I told them exactly how to leverage my skills by creating this role. Uh, so I would say all of those things, the passion, the hard work, the ability to see a need. And come up with solutions. And then finally, and maybe the most important, the ability to self advocate.