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New York, NY, March 1998 - Professional Examination Service (PES) and the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) are pleased to announce a one-year contract extension for examination services and an agreement to conduct a new task analysis of the job of pharmacy technician. The contract extension, which takes effect January 1, 1999, provides for the continued collaboration between PES and PTCB in developing and administering the Pharmacy Technician Certification Examination during 1999. The two organizations will work together to conduct item writing workshops and examination construction meetings with subject-matter experts, in preparation for test administrations at 120 sites nationwide in March, July, and November 1999. Work on the new task analysis - the basis of examination blueprints - will begin in the spring of 1998. Its purpose is to revise the existing role delineation to ensure that it provides an up-to-date and comprehensive picture of what Certified Pharmacy Technicians know and do. The task analysis will study pharmacy technicians employed in different parts of the country and practice settings and will address variations in relation to scope of practice laws. Study participants will include pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and technician educators, selected to represent the diversity of pharmacy practice in terms of demographics as well as practice settings. The first task analysis of the job of pharmacy technician was completed by PES in 1994, as part of the Scope of Pharmacy Practice Project. The study provided the first comprehensive delineation of the functions and responsibilities of both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, and of the underlying knowledge and skills required to perform these functions. Sponsored by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the American Pharmaceutical Association, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, the Scope of Pharmacy Practice Project has come to be regarded as a landmark in the pharmacy profession. As pharmacists devote more time to pharmaceutical care, they are turning increasingly to pharmacy technicians for assistance with functions that do not require the judgment of a licensed pharmacist. The Certified Pharmacy Technician credential aims to benefit employers, pharmacy technicians, and patients by allowing pharmacists to spend more time counseling patients and providing other elements of pharmaceutical care. Over 25,000 practitioners have become Certified Pharmacy Technicians since the program's inception in 1995. The Pharmacy Technician Certification Board was established in January 1995 through a year-long effort by the founding organizations - the American Pharmaceutical Association, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, the Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists, and the Michigan Pharmacists Association - to create one consolidated voluntary national certification program for pharmacy technicians. PES is a nonprofit organization with 60 years’ experience developing, implementing, and evaluating licensure and certification programs. PES’s mission is to promote the understanding and use of sound credentialing practices by providing comprehensive services and making contributions to credentialing stakeholders in the areas of assessment practice, educational activities, scientific research, and policy development. © Copyright 1997-2006 Professional Examination Service.
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