Frank Diaz

Why I do what I do:

1. I am a transitions of care pharmacy technician. I collect medication histories at admission to ensure the patients electronic health records reflects what the patient is taking at home which ensures hospital medication orders are accurate.

2. I also follow up with patients who have been discharged to skilled nursing facilities (SNF) and reconcile the medication administration records (MAR) from the SNF to the discharge orders from the hospital to ensure that the discharging medication orders were carried out accurately at the SNF. I send my finding to a pharmacist for their clinical evaluations.

3. I follow up with certain patients that were discharged from the hospital who have been called by an automatic phone survey who state they were unable to obtain certain medications. I triage these calls and escalate as needed.

Latest Accomplishment:

1. Became an Advanced Certified Pharmacy Technician through the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board

2. Received the vaccination administration certification

3. Received the controlled substance diversion prevention certification

Most Memorable Experience as a Pharmacy Technician:

There have been many memorable experiences in my career, but I think the most memorable was when I was working in a veterinary compounding pharmacy, I was tasked with coming up with a way of giving an antibiotic for a gorilla. My solution was to melt marshmallows, add the active ingredient of the specific antibiotic and add a sweetener since the antibiotic was very bitter. I was invited by the zoo where the gorilla lived and was able to watch as the gorilla took a bite of the marshmallow and threw the rest at the zookeeper. The gorilla was too smart to fall for it and we all had a laugh.

Why I Became Certified?

I became a certified pharmacy technician because I wanted to further my career as a pharmacy technician, increase my knowledge and stand out ahead of others. I also just completed the advanced certified pharmacy technician certification which was another way for me to stand out. I am proud of this accomplishment.

My Passion Outside of Work or Hobbies:

My passion outside of my career is acting. When I have free time, I audition for roles that would be suitable to my work and life balance.

Latest Book Read:

Latest “book” I read was a script for a short film which I am the leading role of. It is due to film this summer.

Advice to Up-and-Coming Technicians:

My advice to up-and-coming technicians would be to know all the different roles that a pharmacy technician can do. As the years have gone by, our scope of practice has increased incredibly that many different roles have been created and opened for us. When I first started as a pharmacy technician, our roles were very limited, and it is amazing to see how much pharmacy technicians are valued in all these different types of roles. Knowing all the types of roles out there will help you decided the course of your new exciting career.