Factors Affecting Pharmacy Technician Earnings

What are the earnings of a Pharmacy Technicians? How well are they paid? Such questions always intrigue the mind of a person, who is planning to choose Pharmacy field as his/her career option.There are numerous factors, which have bearings on the Pharmacy Technician Earnings. The main causes, which affect the salary of these professionals include, location of the pharmacy, influx of the customers and patients, education, training and qualification, experience, size of the pharmacy and odd duty hours. For example, a pharmacy located in a busy city center, where the rush of customers and patients are higher, pays good salary to its working professionals. Similarly, big pharmacies also manage to pay higher wages to its employees.Other than these given factors, there are various other aspects also, which have greatly influenced wages and job prospects of a Pharmacy Technician. The rapid advancement in Medical science and new discoveries of numerous life saving drugs has created new health care awareness among the common people. These reasons have also spurted the numbers of professionalized Pharmacies all over the country, creating numerous job opportunities for the technicians. Such, pharmacies also seek Technicians, who are certified, better qualified, well trained and educated, and can handle the pharmacy works efficiently. They are also well paid as compared to less qualified pharmacy personnel.At present, the basic salary of a Pharmacy Technician comes to around $25,000 for new comers or fresher, $30,000 for few years experienced and $40,000 for +5years experienced. The per hour salary is somewhere $9 to $17, depending on the experience and qualifications.At a glance, the wages may not look attractive but, the projection of Bureau of Labor Statistics that, the employment opportunity in Retail Pharmacies will grow by 32 per cent in near future, bode well for the better earning of the Technicians. As per economists, greater the job opportunities, the higher will be the competition and salary level. They also estimate that the future hourly wage of the Pharmacy Technician will range around $18 to $23 per hour. Such, projections have also urged many professional to sit for the PTCB Certification Test and earn Certification for better earnings.

Do You Know How to Read Nutrition Labels?

I spoke to a group of parents and children on how to read nutrition labels this weekend and decided it will be good to blog about this for a larger audience. From my experience, even among the educated, ‘Nutrition Literacy’ is far from where it should be and learning to read nutrition labels can be a good starting point.Most of us walk into a grocery store and add items to our basket, blissfully unaware of what nutrition it actually delivers. In fact, many of us hardly ever stop to read the label and even if we do get around to looking at it, we may not be sure what the numbers imply. So here are some pointers which will help you decide if the product falls in the “healthy or not so healthy category” and how often you or your child should consume it.”No Label Don’t Buy ” -check for nutrition label on the food pack you buy. Today, all food manufacturers in the country have to declare the following on a label -nutritional facts per 100 g or 100 ml or per serving of the product:energy value in kcal,
total carbohydrate and sugar,
the amount of protein,
fat in gram (g) or ml, and
vitamins and minerals for which a health claim is made”Match Nutrition information to the quantity you eat”- next check if the nutrition information is given per 100 g or per serving.Net weight grams = grams declared on the nutrition label – the package is a one serve pack, say net weight is 30g and the nutrition label gives information for a serving size, then the numbers you see on the label is the nutrition you get from the pack.Net weight (g or ml) > grams/ml declared on the nutrition label – a good example for this is the fruit drinks/juices segment – nutrition facts are often shown per 100 ml even when a typical serve size is 200 ml. So if you are not alert to this fact, you might assume that your child is consuming only half the calories /sugar!Net weight (g) < grams on nutrition label- The single serve snack packs which we buy frequently for children weigh approximately 30 g while nutrition information is given for 100 g, so we need to do some simple division here else you might be left wondering how a small packet can deliver so many calories!”Stay away from large snack packs” – they weigh more than 100 g, but present nutrition information for 100 g. Unfortunately, current labeling norms do not mandate serving size, and even if they did when was the last time you were able to convince your child to close the packet after eating 15 chips? So, it is wiser to stick to the single serve /smaller packs!”Deciphering the calories further”: What is declared on the pack is the total calories you get from the product. To arrive at the number of calories from fat multiply the amount of fat, given in grams by 9, for carbohydrates and proteins, multiply by 4.”Sugar watch”: The number declared against carbohydrates indicates ‘total carbohydrates’ which includes complex carbohydrates (like what is found in cereals), simple sugars as found in fruit, milk and cane sugar and fibre. Check if the product contains added sugar. Some responsible fruit beverage companies do differentiate between the added sugar and the sugar coming from the fruit but many do not. So, if you are not able to figure out, take a look at the ingredient list on the pack – if the ingredient list includes ‘sugar’ in addition to water and juice concentrate, you can be certain that sugar has been added to make the product.”Fat Facts”: There are good fats and bad fats. But in our country, companies are not required to provide a break-up of the fat in foods unless they make health claims like ‘low fat,’ ‘low cholesterol’. As a result, one can never be sure of the type of fat used in the packaged food. One way to find out is to look at the ingredient list for words like ‘partially hydrogenated fat’ ‘shortening,’ as these products have a higher proportion of bad fats (trans fat). In the absence of any of the above information it might be best to avoid products which are high in fat content.Trust you find these pointers useful. Next time when you go to the grocery store, do look for the nutrition label and ingredient list on pack. If you are not happy with the information given, or after doing the math realise this should not be in your basket, put it right back on the shelf and do yourself and your kids a favour!

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Shoe Repairs And Several Other Things When I Was 7

Shoe Repairs And Several Other Things When I Was 7
My Dad repaired most of our shoes believe it or not, I can hardly believe it myself now. With 7 pairs of shoes always needing repairs I think he was quite clever to learn how to “Keep us in shoe Leather” to coin a phrase!

He bought several different sizes of cast iron cobbler’s “lasts”. Last, the old English “Laest” meaning footprint. Lasts were holding devices shaped like a human foot. I have no idea where he would have bought the shoe leather. Only that it was a beautiful creamy, shiny colour and the smell was lovely.

But I do remember our shoes turned upside down on and fitted into these lasts, my Dad cutting the leather around the shape of the shoe, and then hammering nails, into the leather shape. Sometimes we’d feel one or 2 of those nails poking through the insides of our shoes, but our dad always fixed it.

Hiking and Swimming Galas
Dad was a very outdoorsy type, unlike my mother, who was probably too busy indoors. She also enjoyed the peace and quiet when he took us off for the day!

Anyway, he often took us hiking in the mountains where we’d have a picnic of sandwiches and flasks of tea. And more often than not we went by steam train.

We loved poking our heads out of the window until our eyes hurt like mad from a blast of soot blowing back from the engine. But sore, bloodshot eyes never dampened our enthusiasm.

Dad was an avid swimmer and water polo player, and he used to take us to swimming galas, as they were called back then. He often took part in these galas. And again we always travelled by steam train.

Rowing Over To Ireland’s Eye
That’s what we did back then, we had to go by rowboat, the only way to get to Ireland’s eye, which is 15 minutes from mainland Howth. From there we could see Malahide, Lambay Island and Howth Head of course. These days you can take a Round Trip Cruise on a small cruise ship!

But we thoroughly enjoyed rowing and once there we couldn’t wait to climb the rocks, and have a swim. We picnicked and watched the friendly seals doing their thing and showing off.

Not to mention all kinds of birdlife including the Puffin.The Martello Tower was also interesting but a bit dangerous to attempt entering. I’m getting lost in the past as I write, and have to drag myself back to the present.

Fun Outings with The camera Club
Dad was also a very keen amateur photographer, and was a member of a camera Club. There were many Sunday photography outings and along with us came other kids of the members of the club.

And we always had great fun while the adults busied themselves taking photos of everything and anything, it seemed to us. Dad was so serious about his photography that he set up a dark room where he developed and printed his photographs.

All black and white at the time. He and his camera club entered many of their favourites in exhibitions throughout Europe. I’m quite proud to say that many cups and medals were won by Dad. They have been shared amongst all his grandchildren which I find quite special.

He liked taking portraits of us kids too, mostly when we were in a state of untidiness, usually during play. Dad always preferred the natural look of messy hair and clothes in the photos of his children.