Hospital Pharmacist
2007;14:100-102
March 2007

What do technicians think about registration and professionalism?

By Helen Middleton, MRPharmS

Statutory registration of pharmacy technicians is set to become law in the future. This article describes a study in which technicians’ perceptions of registration and becoming “professionals” were analysed

Focus on technicians series

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SUMMARY

Statutory registration of pharmacy technicians is set to become law in the future. This article describes a study in which pharmacy technicians’ perceptions of registration and becoming part of a profession were analysed. Some of the concepts described in a previous article in Hospital Pharmacist about professional socialisation provide a useful background to the issues mentioned here.

Study design

Pharmacy technicians working in hospital pharmacies in the London region were invited to participate in the study in spring 2006. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore pharmacy technicians’ perceptions of:

• Barriers to registration

• The benefits and challenges associated with becoming a professional and belonging to a new profession

• The extent to which pharmacy technicians perform a professional role

• Whether pharmacy technicians’ qualifications and training prepare them for a professional role

For the latter two topics, information given in “blogs” (internet journals written in a personal tone) was taken into account to structure the interviews.

Audio recordings of the interviews were made, which were transcribed onto a computer for coding and analysis. Analysis involved looking for patterns and identifying cases that did and did not fit the emerging concepts.

Nine participants, who were all females in senior roles (MTO3 and above), took part in the study. Time since qualification ranged from two years to more than 20 years.