On June 16th, NHA had the honor of hosting a Congressional Career and Technician Education Caucus briefing in Washington D.C. with key representatives across the country. It was exciting to share information about how health science pathways make up the largest career cluster in Career Technical Education, having served over 1 million concentrators in the 2019/20 school year, and how the healthcare industry remains at the core of our nation’s economic success, even post-pandemic.
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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law House Bill 6 sponsored by State Rep. Bill Roemer which provides patients with continued access to COVID-19 vaccinations, COVID-19 testing and other immunizations and expands employment options for pharmacy technician trainees.
The legislation expands pharmacists’ and pharmacy interns’ authority to provide COVID-19 vaccines to patients seven years of age and older, also allowing pharmacists to order and administer diagnostic and antibody tests for COVID-19. Under the direct supervision of a pharmacist, pharmacy interns and certified pharmacy technicians may also administer the tests. Additionally, the legislation authorizes pharmacists and pharmacy interns to administer to an individual 13 years of age or older an immunization for any disease without a prescription.
The bill also made revisions to the law that remove barriers for individuals to train as pharmacy technicians. The law allows a 17-year-old enrolled in a Board-approved career-technical education program to register with the Board of Pharmacy and extends the time frame for technicians to complete training.
In addition, it requires the State Board of Pharmacy to comply with the law known as the “Fresh Start Act” — enacted by H.B. 263 of the 133rd General Assembly — when registering a pharmacy technician trainee who (1) holds a license or is registered in another state or (2) has satisfactory work experience, government certification or private certification as a pharmacy technician trainee in another state.
The state of Indiana recently enacted House Bill 1468. The legislation increases the pharmacy technician-to-pharmacist ratio from 6:1 to up to 8:1 – a move which empowers pharmacists to deploy more optimized care models that consider the specific needs of the patient population served. It also allows pharmacy technicians to work remotely for certain non-dispensing duties, including data entry and insurance processing and expands patients’ access to critical immunizations by permitting pharmacists, pharmacy students and pharmacy technicians to administer an influenza or COVID-19 vaccine pursuant to a prescription, protocol or standing order (in addition to the 11 other vaccination categories listed in the statute).
Sources:
https://drugstorenews.com/nacds-hails-indiana-law-saying-it-expands-access-pharmacy-based-care
Three new laws in Georgia expand patient access to pharmacy services. Pharmacists and their teams are empowered to collaborate around a mission to keep their communities healthy.
In the last several weeks, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson has signed several bills impacting pharmacy practice including:
The National Healthcareer Association (NHA) has recently introduced its interactive, virtual soft-skills simulation tool, PersonAbility™, to the pharmacy space, providing pharmacy technicians with a healthy dose of professionalism, empathy, and communication training specific to a pharmacy setting.
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NHA's online pharmacy technician training resource, PharmaSeer, was approved by the Maryland licensing committee and Board of Pharmacy, placing it on the list of board-approved pharmacy technician programs.
CRANBURY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pharmacy Times®, the leading multimedia resource for pharmacy professionals, in collaboration with the National Healthcareer Association (NHA), will publish The Pharmacy Technician Edition™, an inaugural supplement for pharmacy technician team members, in tandem with its October issue.
Governor Gavin Newsom today issued an executive order to help increase the availability of CLIA-waived COVID-19 testing and address a variety of issues in response to the pandemic.