What is the difference between a Pharmacist and a Pharmacy Technician?
A Pharmacist is a university-trained health professional. Practicing Pharmacists are licensed by a provincial regulatory body (e.g. Ontario College of Pharmacists) as health care providers who are held accountable for the skills required to ensure a patient receives optimal drug therapy. To become licensed, one of the requirements is that the candidate be a graduate of an accredited Pharmacy degree program. A Pharmacy Technician is typically community or business college-trained in the technical aspects of drug distribution in a community or hospital pharmacy practice site. Technicians work under the direct supervision of a pharmacist to complete the ‘mechanics’ of the acquisition/distribution of drugs through a pharmacy, including the administrative aspects of documentation and third party billing. In Ontario, and some other provinces, Pharmacy Technicians are becoming their own regulated health profession. Once this is in place, most Pharmacists will primarily focus on direct patient
