A day in the life of a senior pharmacy technician

Katie describes the variety in her role as Practice Plus Group’s first senior pharmacy technician across Integrated Urgent Care (IUC).

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My name is Katie Mann and I work as a senior pharmacy technician for Health in Justice (HiJ) and IUC services, joining Practice Plus Group in February 2020.

Life before Practice Plus Group

I started my career working in community with retail pharmacies like Lloyds and Boots, and gained experience as a pharmacy assistant. I became more knowledgeable on different drugs and how they work in the body, and by 2013 I had passed my NVQ level 3 training with the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).

Although I wanted to continue working with medicines, I felt that it was time to take my career in a new direction, that’s when I started working in the Health in Justice sector. I found out about a senior pharmacy technician role at Practice Plus Group through a former colleague Dawn Cassidy, who is the chief pharmacy technician.

The move to Practice Plus Group has been the best thing I ever did! The national team are so supportive, and motivate you to upskill and be the best version of yourself in the role.

What does a senior pharmacy technician do?

My role is to coordinate Home Office licensing, the destruction of controlled medication as well as monitoring and analysing prescriptions across the services. I support the national medicines’ management lead from IUC and NHS 111 services along with the national pharmacist and chief pharmacy technician in Health in Justice, across more than 60 sites nationwide.

A day in the life of a senior pharmacy technician is so varied, I am a point of contact for anyone on site who might have questions about medicine management, or there might be a query about the license of a controlled drug. I also help review the policies and procedures, including the Patient Group Directive (PDG) work plan which supports the vaccine roll out.

I am currently working from home and attend virtual regional medicine management meetings, but also get to meet patients and staff face to face when I have quality assurance site visits.

A career supporting Health in Justice

I was one of those people who was quite nervous about working in a prison, but after I had my interview I was able to visit HMP Wymott prison to better understand what my new environment was going to be like. I think I really benefitted from the visit, you see that it’s very safe, and also a great opportunity to ask questions about who you work with.

Training and career progression

I would say the culture at Practice Plus Group is very transparent and supportive. If you’re struggling with something, even if it’s personal, the team are always there to help, I’ve always felt listened to.

It’s a great time for new staff looking to grow a career as a pharmacy technician, as Practice Plus Group will sponsor level 4 training with the University of East Anglia. The online course is flexible, including medication reconciliation and accuracy checking, which means new staff can upskill rather than have a separate sign-off for accuracy checking. It’s a really good opportunity, I wish it existed when I was starting out!

From a career point of view I haven’t had this much support from a company before; I’m really glad I work at Practice Plus Group.

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