nursing & pharm tech

Murse901, MSN, RN · Jun 10, 2014

The short answer is: it depends. If you mean you want to take the pharmacy tech classes while taking your pre-req's for RN school, then you can probably do this. If you want to take them while you're taking the actual nursing classes, you likely won't have time between clinicals and homework.

To be completely honest, this isn't a great plan. Southwest's Pharm Tech program is 31 hours, which is pretty excessive. That adds a lot of extra time and expense to your plan. You can get hired off the street at Walgreen's/CVS and they will pay you to go through their pharm tech program.

Are you wanting to do this because you want experience that will be valuable to you in nursing school, or are you just looking for a way to pay the bills while in school? If you're looking for valuable experience, I'd urge you to consider a CNA program or, even better, a fast-track EMT program instead. You will get more hands-on patient care experience in those roles and the job schedule will be much more flexible. Pharm tech experience is going to be of very limited value*, and most people will catch up to your level of knowledge within the first two months of nursing school.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

*By saying this, I'm referring to an inexperienced pharm tech. A pharm tech with 10+ years' experience would obviously have a huge advantage in pharmacology.