Chemotherapy technicians are basically pharmacy technicians who specialize in chemotherapy treatment. These technicians either work under a physician in cancer treatment centers or work under the supervision of a pharmacist. The nature of work more or less remains the same regardless of under whom they work. Those working in hospitals and oncology treatment centers also provide services to patients other than assisting the medical staff. This was just a simple way of explaining who is a chemotherapy technician. Going forward, we will discuss about the duties and responsibilities of a pharmacy technician involved in chemotherapy and who qualifies to become a chemotherapy technician.

Chemotherapy Technician: Job Description

As mentioned earlier, chemotherapy technicians are required to perform many duties such as patient service, administrative and clinical duties. Take a look at the simplified list of duties and responsibilities that describes this job portfolio.

• Preparing medications for cancer patients in a sterile environment
• Appropriate labeling of medicines and chemicals
• Proper mixing of different drugs
• Preparing proper dosage for patients
• Handling chemotherapy medications safely
• Mixing various medications with the use of special equipments
• Helping doctors and other health care professionals
• Maintaining records suggesting the dosage given to patients
• Maintaining billing records with the use of electronic filing system
• Ordering and maintaining clinical supplies
• Checking for stocks and restocking pharmaceutical inventory

Chemotherapy Technician: Qualification and Skills

The previous section dealt with the duties that chemotherapy technician requires to perform. As handling chemotherapy drugs and the preparation of it needs a lot of care and the knowledge of right techniques, the technicians need appropriate qualifications and they also need to be certified in the specialized field of chemotherapy. Any pharmacy technician cannot be given the responsibility of dealing with chemotherapy drugs as it involves risk and the knowledge of using special equipments is a must in order to undertake such tasks.

Besides the certification, a technician in chemotherapy must also be aware of the medical terminology and the operations of a hospital pharmacy or a cancer treatment center. Like any pharmacy technician, technician specialized in chemotherapy must also be able to perform administrative duties. For this, one must have good organizational skills, be good at math and also should be good at operating computers. Many treatment centers also conduct interim departmental examinations to check the knowledge and skills of a technician. Besides these exams, they also undertake training programs to update and better the skills of technicians. In the health care industry, even the technician requires to maintain confidentiality. Hence, possessing such a characteristic is also very important along with the ability to work for long hours.

Chemotherapy Technician: Pay Scale

Like any industry, the compensation of a chemotherapy technician would also vary depending on the years of experience, the size of the organization (or hospital in this case) etc. Various online surveys suggest that on an average a chemotherapy technician’s salary could be around $28000. Please do note that this is an approximate figure and there may be many factors that play a role while deciding the salary for a technician.

To be a chemotherapy technician one must have a high school diploma, the relevant experience and must have passed the pharmacy technician certification exam along with an additional certification in chemotherapy. National Pharmacy Technician Association (NPTA) provides this specialized certification involving a thorough study in chemotherapy. An experience in the similar field is a must for aspiring chemotherapy technician as their role is not just restricted at performing clinical and administrative duties but it also directly deals with preparing and administering patients medications.