— TECHNICIAN FOCUS —
Cassandra Kingsford is pictured with her son, Joseph, and daughter, Junie, as well as at work in these photos. Also pictured is her husband, Tom, with their cat, Lumberg.
UP CLOSE AND TECHNICAL
One Technician’s Experience During COVID-19 A Q&A with Cassandra Kingsford When was the first time you considered pharmacy as a career?
When/how did you become certified to provide immunizations?
I was actually in school to become a physical therapist when I was asked to work in the Kmart pharmacy. I had been with Kmart for five years at the time.
I had heard through the grapevine that certified pharmacy technicians can become immunizers, and that it went toward the advanced certification for technicians, so when I was asked if I wanted to take the course, I jumped in feet first.
Why pharmacy? I love helping people and what better way than helping patients understand their medications? By CASSANDRA KINGSFORD, CPhT, pharmacy technician, Munson Medical Center
Did you stumble into it, or was it something you knew you wanted to do from the start? I stumbled into it, but after about two weeks of working in the pharmacy, I knew it was the career for me.
What was your educational/career path? After about a month of working in the pharmacy, I started looking into online universities, found Rasmussen University, which had a program to become a pharmacy technician, and I graduated from the program.
28
MichiganPharmacists.org
What motivated you to achieve this certification? What motivated me to become certified in immunizations was the fact that we, as a nation, were and still are in a crisis. Knowing that I can be part of helping the community overcome the COVID-19 pandemic was a big motivator. This was at the time when Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines had just come out.
Would you recommend other technicians get this certification? Yes, I would. There is just something about giving immunizations at a time like this that makes me feel that I made a difference in someone’s life. What better feeling is there than that?
