Renew

Renew Your ExCPT Certification

By recertifying, you show your dedication to your career and high professional standards.

ExCPT Pharmacy Technician Recertification

Recertification ensures high standards of practice for pharmacy technicians, and encourages participation in continuing education to promote safe and effective patient care.

Requirements

Because of the rapid changes in health care, new drug treatments, and technology, pharmacy technicians must keep up to date.

Your NHA ExCPT/CPhT certification must be renewed every 2 years to stay current.

During the two-year period prior to recertification, certified pharmacy technicians must:

Participate in at least 20 hours of continuing education (CE)
at least one hour of the 20 hours must be in Pharmacy Law
at least one hour of the 20 hours must be in Patient Safety

Your NHA certification must be renewed every 2 years to stay current.

"Renewing your certification is the best thing that you could do in order to advance in your career and feel accomplished" - current NHA certificate holder

How to Stay Current

NHA standards require each certified pharmacy technician complete at least 20 continuing education (CE) hours every two years to maintain certification.

Step 1

Step 2

Select “My CE Portolio” on your dashboard

Step 3

Select “Add External CE Items”

Step 4

Document 20 continuing education hours (one in Pharmacy Law and one in Patient Safety)*

Step 5

Apply the CE hours to your certification(s)

Step 6

Pay your recertification fee

*Note: Your 20 hours of CE will show as 10 credits in your NHA account.

CPhT Certification Reinstatement

Let your certification expire? You have options.

If your certification expired less than a year ago,

you are eligible to reinstate.

If your certification has been expired for more than one year,

you must retake the certification exam.

How to Reinstate

To reinstate your certification status:

Complete at least 20 hours of continuing education (CE), including at least one hour of pharmacy law and one hour of patient safety.
Add external CE hours.
Apply CE hours and pay the fee online.

Reinstatement is not available if your certificate has been expired for more than 12 months.

Step 1

Step 2

Select "My CE Portfolio" on your dashboard

Step 3

Select "Add external CE items"

Step 4

Document 20 continuing education hours (one in Pharmacy Law and one in Patient Safety)*

Step 5

Apply the CE hours to your certification

Step 6

Pay your recertification fee and reinstatement fee

*Note: Your 20 hours of CE will show as 10 credits in your NHA account.

Continuing Education for ExCPT Certified Pharmacy Technicians

Continuing education helps you maintain a high level of knowledge and skill in pharmacy practice. During the two-year period prior to recertification, certified pharmacy technicians must participate in at least 20 hours of continuing education (CE), including at least one hour of pharmacy law and one hour of patient safety.

Pharmacy Technician Continuing Education Topics To be approved, CE credit must be related to pharmacy technician practice. Your submitted credits must include at least one hour of pharmacy law and one hour of patient safety per two-year certification period.

Acceptable topics include, but are not limited to:

Drug distribution
Managed health care
Therapeutic issues
Communications
Pharmacy operations
Calculations
Drug repackaging
Inventory control
Drug products
Patient interaction
Interpersonal skills
Prescription compounding
Patient safety (at least one hour required)
Pharmacy law (at least one hour required)
Preparation of sterile products

NHA reserves the right to reject credits not deemed applicable to pharmacy technician practice.

NOTE: For every two-year renewal period, you must complete at least one hour of pharmacy law and one hour of patient safety.

How to Earn Pharmacy Technician Continuing Education Credits

There are many ways to complete your continuing education (CE) credits.

CE programs offered by national and state pharmacy associations and pharmacy technician associations will generally be acceptable if related to pharmacy technician practice.

NHA recommends CE courses offered by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) and the National Community Pharmacists Association.

CE programs are also available from other national and state pharmacy associations and private providers such as Powerpak and Pharmacy Technician's Letter.

All of the following are acceptable:

live presentations
Internet courses
correspondence courses
workshops
in-service training programs
computer-assisted instruction
journal articles with a CE test
audio or video recordings with a CE test

In-Service Training The ExCPT Continuing Education Form can be used to document your completion of in-service training programs or projects.

In-service training programs may be:

CE programs for which you do not have a Certificate of Participation
Other training or projects completed under the supervision of a pharmacist in which you developed new knowledge or skills to improve your abilities as a pharmacy technician

Your supervising pharmacist must complete and sign the ExCPT Continuing Education Form for you to receive credit. A maximum of 10 hours of CE is allowed using the ExCPT Continuing Education Form.

Note: Additional CE credits earned cannot be carried over to the next recertification period.

College Courses Any college course in the following topics will be accepted:

mathematics
life sciences
pharmaceutical sciences

Applicable college courses with a grade of "C" or better also are eligible for CE credit at the rate of 15 CE hours for each 3 credit-hour course offered on a semester basis (i.e., three hours a week for 15 weeks). Courses offered on a quarterly basis will be credited for 15 hours for a 4 credit-hour course (i.e., four hours per week for approximately 11 weeks). A college transcript is an acceptable Certificate of Participation.

Note: The maximum number of CE credits earned through college courses during a two-year period is 15.

Certificates of Participation Certificates of Participation must be obtained for each CE program.

This certificate must include:

Participant's name
Date of the program
Name of the sponsor*
Program title and number of contact hours
Signature of a person responsible for the program

If the CE provider is accredited by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education (ACPE), the ACPE program number also should be included. ACPE accreditation of the program provider is not mandatory to receive continuing education credit. Please note that ACPE accredits CE providers and is not a CE provider. ACPE should not be listed as the name of the sponsor.

Audits Certified Pharmacy Technicians may be randomly selected for an audit of continuing education credits. If you are notified that you were randomly selected for audit, you will need to list all continuing education hours on the audit application and send photocopies of the continuing education Certificates of Participation and/or the ExCPT Continuing Education Form(s).

ExCPT does not charge certificants a fee for being audited. Audit applications not completed correctly, however, will be returned and will require a $10 reapplication fee. We recommend that you keep copies of your continuing education Certificates of Participation for at least 1 year after your certification expiration date.