WASHINGTON — Starting next year, the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) will implement two changes in recertification requirements for Certified Pharmacy Technicians (CPhTs).
PTCB said Monday that in 2015 any continuing education hours earned by a CPhT must be pharmacy technician-specific, or T-specific, to qualify for recertification.
In the other change, the board will reduce the number of allowable "in-service" CE hours from 10 to five. In-service CE refers to certain projects or training earned at a CPhT’s workplace under a pharmacist’s supervision.
The new requirements are part of the certification program changes that PTCB announced in early 2013 to advance pharmacy technician qualifications by raising its standards for certification and recertification. The revised CE requirements are intended to ensure that CPhTs are continually educated through programs specific to the knowledge required in today’s pharmacy settings, the board said.
Along with the evolution in the nation’s health care system, pharmacy technician roles are expanding to better support pharmacists, PTCB noted.
"It is important for pharmacy technicians to be educated through programs designed to address technician-specific responsibilities and knowledge requirements in the pharmacy," PTCB executive director and chief executive officer Everett McAllister said in a statement. "PTCB’s T-specific CE requirement and the phased reduction in allowable in-service CE hours are both consistent with this goal."
According to PCTB, many CE providers offer T-specific CE, and others are expanding their T-specific programs. The board said it will accept any T-specific program from an organization accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), as indicated by a "T" as the last digit of the course accreditation number.
PTCB noted that it doesn’t require CPhTs to earn their CE hours only from ACPE-accredited providers. To qualify as T-specific, a CE course’s objectives must assess or sustain competencies critical to pharmacy technician practice. These competencies are stated in the Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam (PTCE) Blueprint, a detailed outline of exam content.
PTCB said it plans to implement additional certification program changes, including for recertification requirements. Those changes will include decreasing allowable CE hours earned from college courses from 15 to 10 by 2016, and phasing out allowable in-service CE hours by 2018.
By 2020, PTCB plans to require new candidates seeking initial certification to successfully complete an American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP)/ACPE-accredited education program.
PTCB’s national certification program serves the more than 280,000 active CPhTs nationwide.
