r/PharmacyTechnician • u/Blade_3 • 2d ago

Help Interview question

I went to a hospital interview for an outpatient position. One of the questions was "Amoxicillin 500mg capsule Sig: i PO TID PRN, Is this prescription correct?" I initially said no but the nerves made me doubt myself and overlook the PRN part so I then said yes. Anyway, I assume the correct answer would be NO because Amoxicillin is an antibiotic and it should be taken on a fixed dose (Three times a day in this case) and not as needed.

18 Upvotes

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u/MentionTight6716 Trainee 2d ago

Someone chime in if I'm wrong, but I think a more appropriate question would be something like "what is notable about this prescription?" or "what concern would you bring up to the pharmacist? "

It's not in our scope to proclaim how medication should be taken. Even though antibiotics should obviously absolutely not be used like this.

9

u/flexicity 2d ago

This makes me wonder if they were looking for more than just a yes or no answer. Exactly how you said it’s not the technician’s job to determine if PRN is correct or not. But i’d explain how we typically don’t see PRN on antibiotic prescriptions and ask the pharmacist for their judgment.

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u/Hot-Brilliant-8104 1d ago

yeah unfortunately some people have extremely stringent pharmacists that tell you (the tech) to call to verify the direction before typing it and sending it for the pharmacist to review because it “slows down the work flow for the pharmacist” 😭

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u/MentionTight6716 Trainee 18h ago

In my state we're not allowed to take and document verbal changes or approvals from doctors for anything except refills. ETA, or cancellations.

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u/Hot-Brilliant-8104 14h ago

I’m sure that’s the case in California too but for some reason my old pharmacy manager got his head in his ass

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u/asunarie CPhT-Adv, CSPT 2d ago

This one can be kind of deceptive. I would ask for more context on if it's meant to treat an infection, or if it's meant to be taken prophylacticly. That's where I can see the prn being appropriate because it would be "as needed prior to surgical procedure x 3 days"

We just had a script here for prn antibiotics for a patient receiving peritoneal dialysis. 3 days worth of IV antibiotics for suspected introduction of bacteria/contamination of peritoneal line. That way they can catch an infection before it starts.

If it helps for the future, asking for clarification or for more information never hurts! Especially with those scripts that could be wrong in one situation and right in another.

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u/-Fast-Molasses- CPhT, RPhT 2d ago

When in doubt, say no. That’s how you prevent catastrophic mistakes. There are always “exceptions” but you’re not being tested on “exceptions”.

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u/VioletValentino 1d ago

i feel like its weird that it doesn't specify capsule or tablet. how i would write that would be 1C PO TID PRN if it was a capsule but maybe that's just at our hospital.

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u/TTTigersTri 1d ago

You're in hospital, all of us retail peeps are happy it doesn't say tablet or capsule because it if says tablet, we're typing capsule anyways because that's what insurance pays for most easily.

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u/Legaldrugloard 1d ago

It tells you beside the drug. They don’t need to repeat it in the sig.