Why did you become a pharmacy technician?

It runs in the family. My grandfather was a pharmacist. My aunt is a pharmacist. Another aunt was a technician. A third aunt was a physician’s assistant, and her husband was a doctor. The medical field was a given. I wanted to combine math, science, and people. Becoming a pharmacy technician was the perfect mix.

How long have you been a pharmacy technician?

I was born and raised in Germany. There, you have to go to pharmacy technician school. It’s a two-year program with a six-month internship. Then, you have to pass three exams to get your license to practice as a pharmacy technician. I graduated from that program in 1983 and have worked in pharmacy ever since. 

I came to the U.S. in 1991. My first job in the states was part of a military contract with a clinic that took care of retirees and their dependents. Then, when I moved to South Carolina, a small independent pharmacy was willing to take a chance on somebody from another country. I worked there for 13 years. Their main business was compounding medications—creams, ointments, suspensions, whatever the customer needed. I was trained on how to do things like fit a prosthesis or put on an arm sling or compression stockings. It was challenging at first because even though many of the medications are the same in Germany, the pronunciation is very different in English.

Now, I’m the lead pharmacy technician at Kroger, where I’ve been working for eight years. I try to train my staff to make the workflow smoother. My goal is to keep the pharmacists off the phone and off the register. They accomplish so much more if they don’t have to fill in those gaps.

For me, it’s a mom thing. You want your customers to be happy and taken care of, just like you want that for your kids.

What does a day at work look like for you?

It’s a lot of phone calls, a lot of talking to people about their medication and pricing. There are always questions. “What is cheaper?” “Why doesn’t my insurance pay for this?” They ask me for a price quote. Or, I’ll tell them about the website for a prescription savings card so they can check the savings for themselves.

It’s lots of things like that. I also do data entry and make sure the inventory is correct. Pharmacy technicians do more than counting pills and answering the phones. 

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

I love it when my customers speak in German to me. We’re located near a military base, and there are a lot of German spouses. There are many older German ladies around my mom’s age. My mentality is that if I take good care of them, it’s like someone in Germany is taking good care of her. 

We don’t have a delivery service at my store. Once there was a German woman who went blind and couldn’t drive to the pharmacy to pick up her medications. When her medication was ready, she would pay with a credit card over the phone, and I would drop the prescription off at her house after my shift was over. She wasn’t asking for anything extra, but she was so appreciative that I could do that for her. For me, it’s a mom thing. You want your customers to be happy and taken care of, just like you want that for your kids.

What does this award mean to you?

I appreciate it. I’m proud of it.