A topic that straddles the line between Medication Safety and Operations is the retention, training, and credentialling (formal or informal) of our staff.

What is your hospital/health-system doing, specifically for Pharmacy technicians?

We are going down the road of incorporating a couple of Pharmacy Educators at the technician level, but wanted to check other options. For the last couple of years, we have had a 3-day common onboarding specific for technicians within the system. This covered the very basics of the pharmacy technician role held in common across the system. Currently we are incorporating hands-on training after the didactic portion, but are wanting to expand to frequent check-ins, having them be part of the 90-day evaluation process with the supervisor, helping keep constant check that training matches workflow across the system, and eventually expanding to ensure that all technicians have core competencies checked on a regular basis.

Have others tried this? What are some pitfalls we may not be seeing? Have you found something else that works move the needle for retention of competent work staff?