It is with regret that we announce Deputy Registrar Dale Cooney is moving on from ACP effective September 29, 2017. Dale has been a key member of our leadership team for 13 years, and has contributed to many of the successes that our college and profession have achieved during this period. As a friend and colleague, we will miss him, and at the same time wish him the best in his new journey.
Included in our accomplishments that Dale has significantly contributed to are the development of our current Standards of Practice for Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians and the Standards for the Operation of Licensed Pharmacies, the bridging and eventual regulation of pharmacy technicians, oversight of two versions of our competence program, and most recently the review of our registration policies and processes. We know there are many more, but these are examples that touch us every day.
“The first couple of years of implementation of our standards of practice was a big, big change,” Dale said. “There was a lot we had to do. The fact that I could see the work that I was doing here impacting frontline practice was a highlight. It’s exciting to see it come off the page and into practice. Lots of people are really making the best of it for their patients.”
With years of anticipation, Dale said it was a bit surreal to see the expanded scope become reality in 2007.
“Sometimes it was hard to believe that it would actually happen,” he said. “Even when I graduated pharmacy school 30 years ago, we were talking about this kind of practice.”
Dale says he will miss the people at ACP and being part of creating policy both provincially and nationally. Still, he believes the time is right to focus on what’s been an evolving passion—executive coaching.
“I’m building an executive coaching practice and will do some consulting to support that work,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to make a difference for people by helping them define their goals and develop action plans to work towards them. I’ll work with individuals and organizations. I hope to work with people who are entering leadership, and people who are already in executive positions who are looking for a non-biased sounding board to help them work through issues.”
Building a strong administrative team for the future
The pending vacancy of the Deputy Registrar’s position has invited opportunity to review our past successes and the emerging needs of ACP’s administrative team. The size and demography of our registrant base has rapidly changed, pharmacy practice has changed (as has our approach to supporting it), and more recently the public policies important to pharmacy practice have grown (i.e. e-Health, MAID, opioid crisis, legalization of cannabis). The following five principles were identified as important to building our team:
- Capacity – we require sufficient human resources to fulfill the growing business of the college. Not only has the number of our registrants and pharmacies increased, but the issues and number of required relationships have increased.
- Flexibility – historically we have operated with a relatively lean administration, based on the core programs we administer. Flexibility is important to being more adaptable to changing issues and changing needs throughout the year.
- Resilience/Redundancy – we need to remain efficient, however we can benefit from more redundancy to ensure continuity in the event of vacation, illness, or changing workload.
- Succession – by cross-training at all levels (particularly at the Director level and above) ACP will be able to continue to be successful in the event that a key individual departs.
- Sustainability – our HR plan needs to be based on our business goals and responsibilities, and must ensure the sustainability of the organization both functionally and financially.
With these five principles in mind, two complementary business portfolios will be established; balancing leadership responsibilities across ACP programs, while accommodating improved capacity, flexibility, and resilience in addressing other internal and external business needs.
Each portfolio will be led by a Deputy Registrar. We have engaged Pekarsky & Co. to conduct a national search to find the best two candidates for these positions. The position descriptions and information about applying will be released through a separate email to registrants tomorrow (Thursday, August 3, 2017).
Originally published in The Link – August 2, 2017
