**5. Conclusions**

This study examined pharmacists' perceptions of the value of pharmacy technician certification within an organizational behavior framework. Pharmacists viewed certification as important for professionalization of technicians, suggested the need to include more soft skills training as part of the process, and implored leaders to better integrate certification with vocational training. Future research might attempt to replicate the current study with a more geographically diverse population and evaluate more specific strategies to integrate certification with other forms of training.

Even with many changes having taken place since initial evaluations of the value of certification, the results corroborate the importance of certification not only for specific skills but overall professionalism and commitment, ye<sup>t</sup> recognizes the need for action by various stakeholders and leaders in pharmacy to better integrate certification with other educational components and past work experience to ensure a support workforce that has the competence needed to assist with the execution of e ffective patient care in a continuously changing health care environment.

**Author Contributions:** Research conceptualization by S.P.D.; methodology by S.P.D., K.C.M., and K.C.H.; validation by S.P.D., K.C.M., and K.C.H., data curation by S.P.D., K.C.M., and K.C.H.; writing—original draft preparation by S.P.D.; writing—review and editing by S.P.D., K.C.M., and K.C.H.; project administration, S.P.D., K.C.M., and K.C.H.; funding acquisition, S.P.D.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB).

**Acknowledgments:** The authors would like to express their appreciation to the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) for their sponsorship and support of the study.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
