Pharm Tech Certification Board Awards Grants to Four State Pharmacy Associations
Funds to help establish education and training for pharmacy technicians.
The Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) recently awarded four state pharmacy associations with grants that will be used to fund education and training for pharmacy technicians.
Four grants totaling $27,000 were awarded to the Connecticut Society of Health-System Pharmacists (CSHP), the Iowa Pharmacy Association, the Northland Association of Pharmacy Technicians and North Dakota Pharmacists Association, and the Tennessee Pharmacists Association (TPA) to fund programs that will increase pharmacy technician’s knowledge and skillsets in compounded sterile preparation, technician product verification (TPV), and best practices in medication safety. The awards were made possible by the PTCB’s Partnership Program Fund.
CSHP was awarded a grant that will provide workshops for pharmacy technicians in order to ready them for the compounded sterile preparation technician program.
The Iowa Pharmacy Association received a grant that will allow them to build a toolkit for implementing TPV services in pharmacies across the state. According to a press release, the project was motivated by Iowa State Board of Pharmacy’s recent regulatory updates that will permit technicians to perform TPV services in the state.
The Northland Association of Pharmacy Technicians and North Dakota Pharmacists Association were awarded a grant that will allow them to jointly develop policy and procedural manuals for institutional, community, and long-term care pharmacies that will initiate and support TPV. The program is anticipated to include a pilot project that will be held at four sites, as well as one free TPV continuing education (CE) course.
The Tennessee Pharmacists Association (TPA) received an award to support a project to bring together pharmacist members and technicians for education and training designed to enhance the pharmacy practice, and to deliver live CE courses to at least 50 pharmacy technicians. According to a PTCB statement, the TPA is looking into expanding the live CE courses to technicians that are unable to attend.
PTCB’s Partnership Funds Program supports 72 state pharmacy associations and offers them the exclusive opportunity to request funds for projects that promote medication safety and enhance the roles of pharmacy technicians.
To register as an applicant, one must be a PTCB State Associate and agree to share project information-progress, success stories, project activities summary, etc-with PTCB staff upon request. This information will be used in PTCB communications and marketing materials, according to the application site.
Proposals should be a maximum of two typed pages (approximately 1,000 words in length) that addresses…
- Description of the technician-related project
- Significance of project to medication safety
- Significance of the project to the future of pharmacy technician practice
- Project objectives
- Project timetable
- Budget
Successful applicants will be selected based upon the significance of the project to medication safety, the relevance of the project in advancing the role of pharmacy technicians, the clarity of project objectives, and the completeness and reasonableness of the proposed budget.
Funding awards run in two cycles per year-one in the spring, opening in February and closing in May; and one in the fall, opening in August and closing in November. The next PTCB funding cycle will open on August 15th, 2019. Submissions are due September 30th, and the applications close November 1st.
Project proposals must be submitted via email to stateassociates@ptcb.org.
