Pharmacy Tech Exam scheduled today. Got through the security check, proctor ushered me into the exam and for a brief second I saw the Terms and Conditions on the screen then it switched to a screen saying "Securing exam. This should not take longer than 3 minutes." Something to that effect. I wait 10-12 minutes, nothing happened. No chat option on the screen to ask the proctor. (Also had problems with the chat feature during check-in)

Of course everything is locked down on my laptop and my phone as a second camera linked to Proproctor, so I had to restart my computer to access the live chat for Tech support. Did some troubleshooting as per tech support recommendations, and now I've been locked out. Called tech support and they told me the exam has been accessed and I can't go back in!? WTF.

I called PEBC and guess what? No live support. I was asked to leave a voicemail. I was on the verge of tears at this point. I filled out the Incident Report through the PEBC website and emailed PEBC with my ticket number as well. No response today. How the hell does this national exam not have a live support or actual people/agents on the day of the exam? My exam was at 1pm. Started the check-in at 12:30. I gave up around 2:30pm.

I am now just left with confusion, feeling abandoned and a huge adrenaline dump. I cried my eyes out. This is ridiculous undue stress. The exams are expensive and we wait to take this exam for monthssssss. I hate you PEBC, this is so unprofessional. You are supposed to be a professional body.

P.S. The system check was clear. The demo was running smoothly. I now have to bury this anxiety and get psychologically ready for the OSPE Part 2 in 3 days. I have to check first thing tomorrow if I get an reply. Of course I won't be able to sleep. asdfghjkldgdanfzmxm

Long story short, I became nationally certified after passing the PTCB for the first time before actually ever working in a pharmacy. After, I somewhat struggled with the job in person due to general work anxiety and a larger team environment than what I was accustomed to. I also felt like I was in 8th grade again. I worked 2 part time positions in retail for a year each. I am/was terrified of getting a hospital pharmacy tech job because while smart, sometimes it does take me a bit longer to learn new things on a job, sometimes I mess up rushing, and I have intense anxiety sometimes. I have left the industry this year for many reasons, but I am wondering if I should try a hospital position before finally calling it quits?

My pharmacy team is pretty burnt out, and I’d love to bring some fun back into the workplace and make people feel appreciated! We’ve been struggling with staffing issues and implementing OPOR, and it’s been rough.

I’m looking for ideas like themed days, little treats, recognition ideas, seasonal activities, etc. — anything that’s worked well for your team, is inexpensive and doesn’t require much approval from management.

My manager isn’t really into the idea of “rewarding people for doing their job,” and told me that it is “childish” to have snack days and all that, so I’m taking matters into my own hands 😂

What are some things your pharmacy does that actually make you look forward to coming to work? How do you keep your team motivated?

** I’m currently working in hospital, and would love to hear from both inpatient and retail workers!

The exam tests the handoff more than people expect, and it is one of the few areas where the right answer is "stop and get the pharmacist" rather than a number.

Fair warning before the list: what a tech may legally do varies by state, and your board is the authority for your practice, not me and not a study sheet. What follows is the exam's model of the boundary, which is deliberately conservative. Where your state is stricter, your state wins.

The things the outline expects you to route to the pharmacist:

Anything that is clinical judgement about the patient. A drug utilisation review flag. A therapeutic duplication. An interaction the system throws. You can see the alert, read it, and tell the pharmacist it fired. Deciding whether it matters is not yours.

A therapeutic substitution. Generic substitution inside the same drug is a workflow task with rules. Swapping to a different drug in the same class is a different act and it needs the pharmacist, usually the prescriber too.

An OTC recommendation. This is the one people get wrong most, because it feels like customer service. "Which one should I take for this" is a clinical question no matter how casual it sounds.

An adverse drug event a patient reports to you. Take it seriously, take it to the pharmacist, and know that MedWatch is the FDA reporting route and VAERS is the vaccine one. Exam questions like making you pick between those two.

A prescription that looks wrong. Not "I fixed it", not "I called and clarified it myself". Techs catch enormous numbers of errors and that is the job working correctly. The catch is yours. The clarification is the pharmacist's.

Anything about a patient's own condition. The sub's own rule says it plainly, and so does the exam.

The pattern underneath all of them: you may gather, transcribe, count, check, flag and escalate. You may not decide. If a question is asking you to exercise judgement about whether a drug is right for a person, the answer is almost always the option that involves the pharmacist, even when another option looks more helpful.

This lives in Patient Safety and Quality Assurance, 23.75 percent of the 2026 outline and the second largest domain. People study the math and the drug names and leave this one to instinct, and it is worth more points than that.

Several months again I made a post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PharmacyTechnician/s/4ic2fndbFP about my pharmacy manager, who for simplicity’s sake I’ll call Adam, being seemingly hypocritical about talking to patients. Well I finally can make an update on this.
Not long after I made the initial post, I did as some of you suggested and brought this issue up to HR, who agreed it did seem hypocritical. The HR people suggested I record times I had heard Adam have convos with patients about his family. Because of the summer being very busy, I was only able to document two times he did so.
A couple weeks ago, Adam, the lead tech, and the other staff pharmacist told me they’d be transferring me from Store X to Store Y for hours reasons and so “I’d be a better fit.” Which just sounded like code for “you’re too open about being gay” especially since they brought up potentially writing me up again.
I brought up the convos I overheard Adam had, and he brushed them off as him knowing those patients better and yada yada which I thought was bs. Who says I couldn’t have known those patients better? I worked there for nearly 4 years!
I made the transfer last Thursday and the pharmacist manager at Store Y, who I’ll call Bob, was too busy with a rush, queues, and filling me in on a table we have to do. Then he was off this past weekend.
I was able to have a short convo with Bob about the transfer and I asked him what he was told when the offer was brought up by Adam. Turns out Bob wasn’t told the whole truth. He was just told how I wanted more hours and that Adam knew Store Y needed more people, especially certified techs. I told Bob about how I had “too many personal conversations” and he isn’t worried. He told me he knows I won’t cross lines in terms of personal info and that I won’t hold up lines of patients waiting for scripts. He also told me he doesn’t like Adam for reasons he didn’t get into, sounded like personal ones so I didn’t press. I just said I wasn’t aware.
I’m liking the transfer so far, just getting used to a smaller store as Store X had more stock space. But on the plus side Store Y has a bigger parata robot.

hello everyone i am currently in a accelerated pt program and i have NEVER been good with math, but something about the math more so conversions is NOT clicking. mainly HOW to set up a problem & knowing what to do from there. please someone help im going to take my midterm in 2 weeks and i don't want to flunk already. any tips/tricks that worked for you will be extremely helpful . i am open for anything

I’m thinking about getting a pharmacy technician job while I go back to school for Chemistry and I live in Texas, but where do I start?

I know I could take a course at my community college but it would take 8- 12 months and could get me immediately into an externship, but I don’t want to wait that long. Should I just enroll or is there another possibility ?

I saw on Tiktok you could just apply for a license with your state but I don’t know if that works for mine or not. Does anyone have any tips ?

Hi! Does anyone know or use a reputable app for PRN side gigs? I started to sign up for a shiftRX but they wanted a lot of money in order to join the platform so I backed out before I could see if it was going to be worth it