Recent Lufkin Graduate Receives Pharmacy Honors
The Lufkin High School Kaduceus Pharmacy Technician Program in its first year has produced the area's first High School Sterile Product/ IV certified and Texas State Board registered Pharmacy Technician student in Pressley Nicholson. She is shown above with Director of CTE, Stephen Rhoades, and Pharm Tech teach Darlene Henderson.
To be a registered pharmacy technician with IV certification, a student must successfully complete a rigorous state approved Pharmacy Technician Program as a senior in high school. The program is 1 year in length and eligibility to sit for the board exam is granted only after high school graduation. While enrolled in the program, the student must go through a fingerprinting process, pass a background check, register with the Texas State Board of Pharmacy and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy and complete practical hours at a pharmacy. Those hours were provided by Abeldt's Pharmacy. The IV certification process of the course requires successfully completing additional testing and training standards set forth by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE). Nicholson has successfully completed all phases of the program and is currently continuing her education at Stephen F. Austin State University.
The LHS Pharmacy Tech Program as a 100% passage rate thus far as each student who has taken the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board Exam has been successful. Katie Dickerson who was also enrolled in the program recently passed the exam and is IV certified. Her practical hours were provided by The Medicine Shoppe.
Lufkin High School is the only area high school that offers the Pharmacy Technician Program with IV Certification.