About Pharmacy Essentials
Technicians are trusted with a lot. We help prepare them for it.
Pharmacy Essentials gives pharmacies a standardized way to prepare technicians before their first shift, so readiness does not depend on how busy the counter was that week.
Why Pharmacy Essentials exists
Pharmacists complete years of schooling and a doctorate before they are trusted with a prescription. Pharmacy technicians can be placed directly into live workflow, with on-the-job training as their main preparation for the role.
That is not a failure of the pharmacies doing the training. It is what happens when vacancies run high, the pace is relentless, and there is no standard path a technician can take before they start. The people teaching are the same people trying to keep the queue moving.
On-the-job training can absolutely get a technician where they need to be, and plenty of pharmacies do it well. What it cannot easily guarantee is consistency, because how much a new technician picks up often depends on who was free to teach that week and how heavy the volume was.
The work deserves that consistency. A pharmacist’s verification is an important safeguard and it does its job well. It was simply never designed to carry the full weight of preparing the person doing the work.
Our view is straightforward. A technician should have the chance to practice compounding an IV or filling a prescription in a simulated environment before doing it for an actual patient. Building that practice in ahead of day one gives the technician confidence, gives the pharmacy a teammate who can contribute sooner, and gives the pharmacist a stronger partner at the bench.
That is what Pharmacy Essentials was built to provide.
What the job looks like, by setting
The technician role changes shape depending on where it is practiced. Our training is built for each of these.
Community
Retail and independent pharmacy
✓ Prescription intake and data entry
✓ Insurance claims and rejections
✓ Prior authorizations
✓ Dispensing and production
✓ Ordering, receiving, and inventory
✓ Controlled substance handling
✓ Patient pickup and hand-off to the pharmacist
Inpatient
Hospital and health-system pharmacy
✓ Sterile compounding and IV preparation
✓ Hazardous drug handling
✓ Automated dispensing cabinets and carousels
✓ Unit dose and cart fill
✓ Floor stock and par management
✓ Recalls and expiration management
✓ Emergency and code tray preparation
Specialty
Specialty and infusion pharmacy
✓ Benefits investigation and coverage verification
✓ Prior authorizations and appeals
✓ Copay assistance and foundation programs
✓ REMS and limited distribution requirements
✓ Cold chain packing and shipping
✓ Patient onboarding and adherence outreach
✓ Refill coordination and billing rejections
Underneath all three, the same foundation: medication knowledge, pharmaceutical calculations, patient safety and error prevention, federal requirements, professionalism, communication, and de-escalation.
How Pharmacy Essentials started
The idea took shape in August 2025. Pharmacy Essentials was established on February 5, 2026.
Pharmacy Essentials offers two pathways for pharmacies and hospitals: onboarding technicians an employer has already hired, and recruiting and training technicians to fill open roles. Both run on the same standardized program of online coursework, hands-on simulation, and an externship in a licensed, working pharmacy.
Pharmacy Essentials is a woman owned business, independently owned and operated.
Who founded it
Pharmacy Essentials was founded by Sarah Smith, PharmD, MBA, BCPS, with experience across community, independent, and health-system pharmacy practice.
She started in pharmacy as a technician in 2017. She went on to earn an MBA and a Doctor of Pharmacy from Texas Tech University, then practiced as a pharmacy manager in community pharmacy and as a clinical pharmacist specialist in a health system, supporting adult and pediatric patient populations in an interdisciplinary setting. She is licensed in North Carolina and Texas.
The curriculum grew out of that experience and was shaped further by input from technicians, pharmacists, and educators working in the settings it trains for. It is built around what technicians are actually asked to do on the floor.
Ready to bring standardized training into your pharmacy?
Whether you’re onboarding a new hire or filling an opening, let’s talk.
“Patient safety begins long before the medication reaches the patient. It begins with training.”
Pharmacy Essentials