Pharmacy Technician Kits for Realistic Drug Dispensing Training

Are you training students to become pharmacy technicians? If so, one of the best ways to provide them with safe, hands-on training is to supply them with pharmacy technician kits.

Pharmacy technician kits contain all the critical tools, devices, and accessories that your students will need to practise their drug dispensing skills in a real-world setting. Much of what you’ll find in the kits is a combination of simulated medications and realistic tools to provide your students with the most authentic training experience possible. Similar to nursing supplies, these kits are essential for hands-on training in the healthcare field, ensuring students are fully prepared for real-world applications.

Simulated Medications

Simulated medications are the most essential items found in pharmacy technician kits. They consist of placebo oral, vial, and ampule medications with realistic packaging and labelling to give them the appearance of real medication. Students can use these simulated medications to grow accustomed to reading medication packaging and labelling as part of their pharmacy training.

Here is an overview of the three types of simulated medications found in most pharmacy technician kits:

• Simulated Vials – Simulated vials can help students learn how to measure, dispense, and administer multiple medication dosages. Since vials are reusable with their screw caps, students can refill them with more placebo medication for additional practice.
• Simulated Ampules – Simulated ampules are disposable and smaller than vials. They are airtight containers suitable for storing single-dose medications. Pharmacy technician kits will come with simulated ampules filled with placebo medication. Students can practice the best ways to break open the ampules and dispense them in a realistic medical setting.
• Simulated Oral Medications—Simulated oral medications are placebo pills and capsules made to look like realistic oral medications. Students will learn how to accurately count and sort these medications before safely dispensing them to patients.

Remember that the main purpose of simulated medications is to practice dispensing and administering drugs to patients. Since the actual medication solutions are placebos, there is absolutely zero risk to the patients because the medicines are not real. They contain nothing more than distilled water, sugar tablets, or some other safe and harmless solution.

The term “demo dosage” refers to the act of calculating and dispensing simulated medication for training purposes. Pharmacy technician students will become very familiar with this term because they need plenty of hands-on practice preparing medications in real-world scenarios. Simulated medications are the primary supplies necessary to achieve this goal.

When students want to practice administering medications to patients, they can use either manikins or simulated patients. It is better to start with the manikins until the students learn the basics of administering the medications safely. Then, they can move on to practicing with simulated patients, which are human mock patients who have undergone the necessary training to react to the actions of students. 

Dispensary Tools and Accessories

Any good pharmacy technician kit must come equipped with the appropriate dispensary tools to help students learn how to sort medications and calculate dosages properly. Some of these tools might include:

• Counting Trays – Pharmacy technicians use counting trays to help accurately count oral medication capsules and pills for patients. They also make it easier to sort the various medications to reduce the risk of mixing or cross-contamination. Every pharmacy student needs to have one or more counting trays in their pharmacy technician kits.

• Syringes—Pharmacy technicians use syringes to measure and administer liquid medication. Some pharmacy technician kits come with prefilled syringes to help students understand how to read the measuring scale printed on the outside of the syringes.

• Spatulas – Pharmacy technicians use spatulas to safely and hygienically handle, sort, count, prepare, and dispense medications. Some spatulas are made to work with specific medication types, such as pills or powders. A typical pharmacy technician kit should come with at least one spatula suitable for counting pills.

• Graduated Cylinders – Pharmacy technicians must measure liquid dosages as accurately as possible. Graduated cylinders are the perfect tools for measuring liquids. After all, these are the same cylinders that high school students use to measure liquids in science class. For pharmacy technician trainees, graduated cylinders can serve a similar purpose in relation to measuring and dispensing liquid medication.

• Mortar and Pestles—Mortar and pestles are some of the oldest pharmacy tools still used today. Pharmacy technicians use these tools to grind and crush tablet solutions into fine powders. Students must learn to use mortar and pestles to prepare other kinds of medications, such as creams and ointments.

• Electronic Scale—Measuring the size and quantity of dosages is one important part of pharmacy technician dispensary work. The other important part is weighing the medication to calculate dosages. That is why every pharmacy technician kit needs an electronic weight scale so that students can measure their medication dosages before distributing them to patients or storage containers.

• Thermometers – When certain medications are stored away, they need to be in an environment with a particular temperature to ensure they will stay preserved and viable. Pharmacy technicians use digital thermometers and advanced temperature monitoring systems to verify the temperature of a specific storage environment. Students must get in the habit of monitoring the temperatures of their medication storage areas to ensure their stored medication doesn’t go bad.

Most pharmacy students have probably heard of these tools before if they have yet to use them. However, your job as an educator is to teach your students how pharmacy technicians use these tools to dispense drugs in a medical environment. That way, your students will have the knowledge they need to succeed as professional pharmacy technicians once they graduate school.

Learn More

Do you need to assemble pharmacy technician kits to give your students realistic drug dispensing training?

Pristine Medical is a trusted medical supply and simulation distributor for professionals and schools wishing to enhance the pharmacy education of their students. You can find all the different medical supplies that you need to build customized pharmacy technician kits suitable for the lessons you have planned for your students.