What a pharmacy technician does
In Ontario, pharmacy technicians are regulated health professionals registered with the Ontario College of Pharmacists. Registration lets them take responsibility for technical tasks such as receiving and transcribing prescriptions, preparing and compounding products and completing the technical check on a prescription, while the pharmacist keeps responsibility for the clinical review. When technicians handle this work well, pharmacists have more time for counselling, prescribing and medication reviews, and the dispensary runs with fewer errors and less rework.
Because the title is protected, only a registered technician can call themselves a pharmacy technician in Ontario, and that difference matters when you plan your staffing model. Finch confirms each candidate's registration, then looks at the setting they know best, whether that is high-volume community dispensing, compliance packaging for long-term care, sterile compounding in a hospital or specialty products. The aim is a technician who fits your workflow and frees your pharmacist to work to full scope.
Typical responsibilities
- Receive, enter and process prescriptions in the pharmacy's dispensing software
- Prepare, package and label medications, including compliance packaging for patients and care homes
- Complete the technical check on prescriptions prepared by colleagues
- Perform non-sterile or sterile compounding, depending on the setting
- Manage inventory, ordering, returns and drug recalls
- Gather medication histories and pass information to the pharmacist for clinical review
Qualifications and credentials
- Registration as a pharmacy technician with the Ontario College of Pharmacists
- Graduation from a pharmacy technician program accredited by the Canadian Council for Accreditation of Pharmacy Programs (CCAPP)
- Successful completion of the PEBC Qualifying Exam, the College's jurisprudence, ethics and professionalism exam and its entry-level practice assessment
- Personal professional liability insurance, which the College requires
- OCP-approved technician injection training, registered with the College, where the role includes giving vaccines
- Sterile compounding experience for hospital and specialty roles
Who hires a pharmacy technician
- Community and chain pharmacies
- Hospital and health system pharmacies
- Pharmacies that prepare multi-dose packaging for care homes
- Specialty and compounding pharmacies
Where we recruit pharmacy technician candidates
We fill pharmacy technician roles for employers across Toronto and the GTA, including North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke, Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Mississauga, Brampton, Oakville, Burlington, Oshawa and Pickering, and for employers across Canada. GTA employers can meet us at our North York office by appointment.
What Finch checks before you meet a candidate
- Confirm registration on the OCP public register, including any terms or conditions
- Ask about accuracy checking experience and the dispensing systems they have used
- Review compounding and compliance packaging skills against your service mix
- Discuss the prescription volume and team size they are comfortable supporting
- Check references from supervising pharmacists
Interview questions to ask
- Walk me through how you complete a technical check. What are you looking for at each step?
- Tell me about an error you caught before it reached a patient. What happened next?
- How do you decide which patient questions you can answer and which belong with the pharmacist?