The University of Iowa College of Pharmacy hosted the Iowa Task Force for Pharmacy Technician Education on June 9, 2015. The Task Force is composed of a group of Iowa community college presidents, deans for health sciences, vice presidents, department chairs, directors, and pharmacy technician program faculty, along with representatives from several national organizations with interests in pharmacy technician education, who have volunteered to work to coordinate and enhance the pharmacy technician curricula available in Iowa.

The inaugural meeting’s efforts were directed at the identification of best practices for current curricular offerings, avoiding unnecessary duplication of resource allocation, and working towards the development of a curriculum meeting the standards established by ASHP/ACPE, the collaborating group responsible for accrediting pharmacy technician education programs.

The focus of the meeting was a discussion of the currently available programmatic offerings and the identification of areas where new curricular content will need to be developed to meet current accreditation standards. 

The task force will reconvene in August, where additional discussions will take place regarding the design and development of simulation activities that can be provided either at each community college, regionally within Iowa, or centrally on the University of Iowa campus in order to  meet the most recent accreditation requirements.