Pharmacy technicians know why eardrops cannot go in your eye
Published 2:53 pm Saturday, January 19, 2019
Pharmacy Technology Director Thera Celestine finds the proper medication in a laboratory typical to a retail pharmacy.
Pharmacy Technology Director Thera Celestine demonstrates preparation of an IV bag using a specialized ‘hood’ found in chemo pharmacy laboratories. The specialized ‘hood’ provides a sterile and safe environment for the technician to perform their work.
Bobby Tingle/ The Orange Leader Pharmacy Technology Director Thera Celestine demonstrates fulfillment of a prescription. Technicians learn a special ‘short-hand’ used by doctors to order their patients drug therapy.
By Bobby Tingle
Pharmacy Technology Director Thera Celestine trained pharmacy technology employees for a major retail chain 18 years before joining Lamar State College-Orange.
Celestine now teaches students who aspire to become certified and employed as a pharmacy technician in retail, hospital, chemotherapy and long-term care facilities.
“Our students do not have a problem finding a job,” Celestine said. “Our program is respected among health care providers.”
Lamar State College-Orange offers students an opportunity to gain the knowledge, skills and legal aptitude to succeed as a pharmacy technician.
Lamar State College-Orange pharmacy technology program is ranked among the top 10 in the State of Texas and among the top 75 in the nation.
Celestine is proud of their accomplishments.
“We impress on our students early in the program an important thing to know. Eye drops can go in your ear but eardrops cannot go in your eye,” said Celestine.
Why you ask? Eye drops must be sterile, ear drops do not, a big distinction. But there are cases where the drug is similar and beneficial in both places.
Pharmacy technology students learn the ‘shorthand’ employed by doctors when prescribing drug therapy for their patients.
Students get drilled every day on the shorthand. There is a big difference between ‘QOD’ and ‘QD’. The former means every other day the latter every day.
Precision is important to ensure the patient takes enough, but not too much, of the prescribed medication.
Students in the pharmacy technology program at Lamar in Orange have the benefit of a program, which is accredited by the American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists. Accreditation standards are high. Gaining and retaining this designation requires adherence to rigorous standards and periodic reviews and audits.
Beginning this semester, students from the State of Louisiana will be given the option of gaining certification from their home state. Lamar has an agreement with the State of Louisiana to do so. This will make Lamar the most cost-effective program for prospective students between here and Lafayette.
Students get a real-world feel in the program.
Celestine has mimicked a retail, hospital and chemotherapy laboratory where students develop their skills.
On the job, technicians need to understand pharmacokinetics, how the drugs move through the body, but must never give a patient drug therapy advice.
Lamar State College-Orange offers an excellent, well-respected, accredited pharmacy technology program.
For more information you can contact Celestine at 409-882-3010, Loan Nguyen at 409-882-3035 or Lacey Lemoine at 409-882-3044 in the Allied Health building.
You can go online also at
http://www.lsco.edu/alliedhealth/pharmacytech.asp.
