FAQ

In Alberta, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are granted the privilege of self-regulation and professional autonomy through the Health Professions Act. As a regulated health professional, it means that

·       You have met the educational requirements and have demonstrated the entry-to-practice competencies.

·       You are legally responsible and accountable for your work.

·       You are directly responsible to the public and your healthcare colleagues for maintaining your professional competence.

Patients have a right to assume that a healthcare professional’s practice permit is assurance of current professional competence. Healthcare colleagues want assurance that those with whom they practice are current and competent. For these reasons, the Health Professions Act requires that Council establish a Continuing Competence Program to ensure health professionals fulfil their professional responsibility of maintaining competence.

Clinical pharmacists and registered pharmacy technicians must

• complete at least 15 CEUs during each CE cycle,
• record all learning on one or more learning records,
• implement at least one CEU worth of learning into your practice and document this on an implementation record, and
• complete any required learning that has been assigned by the Competence Committee.

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians can access all program materials through the CCP portal.

A professional portfolio consists of the learning records, the implementation record, and supporting documentation that verify a registrant’s participation and completion of CEUs, including the prescribed learning activity. Your professional portfolio must be submitted annually to ACP for each continuing education (CE) cycle. For help with submitting your professional portfolio, please refer to the CCP Manual for pharmacists and CCP Manual for pharmacy technicians.

Clinical pharmacists and registered pharmacy technicians must complete and submit a professional portfolio to ACP to be eligible to renew their practice permit for the following registration year. They must complete a professional portfolio each CE cycle and must submit it to ACP via the CCP portal.

Clinical pharmacists and registered pharmacy technicians may access the CCP portal at any time during the CE cycle to work on their professional portfolio. When you have completed all the CCP requirements, and the college has enabled the submit button in the CCP portal, you may submit your professional portfolio. The submit button is only active during the online registration renewal period (i.e., end of April for pharmacists and end of October for pharmacy technicians).

The progress indicator on the CCP portal home page lists the three components of the competence program:

• self-assessment/prescribed activities,
• learning records; and
• implementation records.

Once you have met a component’s requirements, a checkmark should appear next to its title. You may need to log out and log back into the portal again in order for the checkmark to appear. Each component’s requirements are:

• Self-assessment/prescribed activities
  • Complete the prescribed activity assigned by the Competence Committee. 
• Learning records
  • Complete a minimum of 15 CEUs within the current CE cycle and document your learning on one or more learning records.
  • You must answer questions one through seven in the learning record for the record to be marked as complete.
• Implementation records
  • Select one completed implementation record for submission.
    • Your implementation record must be directly related to at least one CEU you completed during the current CE cycle.
  • Upload one piece of documentation that provides evidence of your implementation.
  • You must answer questions one through eight in the implementation record for the record to be marked as complete.

If you do not complete all requirements by the renewal date, you may not renew your practice permit. You will be directed to contact the ACP registration department for further instructions.

Although the self-assessment tools are optional, unless otherwise directed by the competence committee, we encourage all registrants to complete an annual self-assessment.

The self-assessment section of the CCP portal contains many tools that can help you identify your learning needs, relevant implementation objectives, and plan accordingly. The college does NOT monitor or track your self-assessment results.

Yes, registrants on the associate register will have access to the Continuing Competence Program through the CCP portal. Registrants on the associate register can complete and submit a professional portfolio voluntarily each CE cycle. Completing a professional portfolio annually will prove beneficial if a registrant decides to return to an active status.

All clinical pharmacists and registered pharmacy technicians must complete and submit a professional portfolio to ACP to be eligible to renew their practice permit for the following registration year. The Continuing Competence Program was designed to be applicable to registrants practising in different environments, including registrants who are not in direct patient care.

The Continuing Competence Program was designed to be applicable to pharmacists and pharmacy technicians practising in different environments, including those who are not in direct patient care. Registrants should be able to meet the requirements of the program even outside of clinical practice or during a maternity leave. What you choose to learn and implement should be based on your personal and professional learning and practice needs.

For registrants who are not in direct patient care, possible outcomes from your implementation may be:

• a transfer of knowledge, skill or ability to others (e.g., execute a health promotional activity or educational session); or
• an improvement to your organization and/or the way care is delivered (e.g., implement or propose a new or revised policy, procedure, program, or tool).

To determine what you can implement, it may help to consider the following:

• What are your learning and practice needs?
• Who can you transfer knowledge to?
• How can you affect changes in practice?

If you do not have access to patients, potential audiences for your implementation may be the people you work with, other healthcare professionals, or perhaps the general public.

Clinical pharmacists and registered pharmacy technicians must complete and submit a professional portfolio to ACP to be eligible to renew their practice permit for the following registration year. If you maintain your practice permit, you are responsible for maintaining your competence. Even outside of practice, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians should be able to meet the CCP requirements.

If you feel that you cannot complete the requirements of the Continuing Competence Program and are NOT currently practising in Alberta, you may choose to go to the associate register. Please note that when you move into the associate register, you are NOT permitted to practise as a pharmacist or pharmacy technician and no fees will be refunded. When you are ready to return to practice, you would have to reinstate as a clinical pharmacist or registered pharmacy technician and complete requirements per the reinstatement policies.

Pharmacists who register for the first time in Alberta between January 1 and June 30 do not have to complete the Continuing Competence Program before renewing their practice permit for the upcoming registration year (July 1 – June 30).

Pharmacy technicians who register for the first time in Alberta between July 1 and December 31 do not have to complete the Continuing Competence Program before renewing their practice permit for the upcoming registration year (January 1 – December 31).

You will have access to the program through the CCP portal prior to your renewal; however, any activities/records completed prior to the start of the next CE cycle will be for your own personal development and may not be used towards the next CE cycle.

When you renew your practice permit in the following registration year, you are required to complete and submit a professional portfolio to ACP. All activities included in this submitted portfolio must be completed during the corresponding CE cycle (i.e., June 1 - May 31 for pharmacists; December 1 - November 30 for pharmacy technicians).

Yes! Check out the examples in the Competence section of our website.

Refer to the CCP Audit page for more information.

Yes, clinical pharmacists and registered pharmacy technicians are required to complete the Continuing Competence Program each year. However, registrants who have been randomly selected for audit and achieved the established standard within the last five years and pharmacists who have been granted additional prescribing authorization within the last five years will not be selected for random audit. The portfolios for these registrants will only be selected for an audit if there is another reason such as a late or incomplete submission or a request from the registrar.

This is a continuing competence program and we encourage you to continuously build upon your knowledge and skills. You may implement learning that was completed in a previous CE cycle; however, your implementation still needs to be tied to one CEU worth of learning completed during the current CE cycle. Therefore, if you choose to implement learning that was completed in a previous CE cycle, you just need to complete one more CEU in the current CE cycle that is related to your objective.

No, there is no minimum requirement for accredited CEUs. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians may complete any combination of accredited or non-accredited learning activities to a minimum of 15 CEUs each CE cycle.

Yes! Check out the examples in the Competence section of our website.

Refer to the  CCP Manual for pharmacists and CCP Manual for pharmacy technicians for more information.

Refer to the  CCP Manual for pharmacists and CCP Manual for pharmacy technicians for more information.

First Aid and CPR can be claimed as non-accredited learning. You can maximize your CEUs by completing more than one learning record. For example, you might do one learning record for the First Aid portion and another for the CPR portion, allowing you to claim up to 16 non-accredited CEUs.

The CE cycle is when you are required to complete the Continuing Competence Program requirements. The cycle coincides with your registration renewal deadline.

• For pharmacists, the CE cycle starts June 1 of any year and ends May 31 of the following year.
• For pharmacy technicians, the CE cycle starts December 1 of any year and ends November 30 of the following year.

We encourage you to start this annual learning process early and complete a learning record right after you complete an activity.

Yes, you may claim learning activities from any country if they are relevant to your pharmacy practice.

Basically, one hour of learning is equivalent to 1.0 CEU. You may claim to the nearest quarter of an hour for the time spent on a learning activity.

• For an accredited activity, the number of CEUs is determined by the accrediting body.
• For a non-accredited activity, the number of CEUs is equivalent to the amount of time you spend completing the learning activity. 

No. For an accredited course, you may combine all the learning activities represented on the course certificate and document on one learning record. For non-accredited courses, you must document each learning activity individually. You may document a maximum of eight non-accredited CEUs on one learning record. If a non-accredited course is more than eight CEUs, you must document your learning over two or more learning records.

You may find accredited programs by visiting the CCCEP or ACPE websites. Alternatively, you may find potential accredited programs or events directly on the website of organizations that offer accredited programs, such as the following:

• Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA),
• Alberta Pharmacists’ Association (RxA),
• Pharmacy Technician Society of Alberta (PTSA),
• Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists (CSHP),
• Canadian Healthcare Network,
• rxBriefCase,
• HealtheLearning, Pear Healthcare Solutions Inc.,
• Teva Pharmacy Solutions,
• Pharmacist’s Letter, and
• Pharmacy Technician’s Letter.

No, all CEUs must be claimed and documented on learning records for a current CE cycle.

Refer to the  CCP Manual for pharmacists and CCP Manual for pharmacy technicians for more information.

No, you can only claim courses that you have attended or completed during the current CE cycle.

Refer to the  CCP Manual for pharmacists and CCP Manual for pharmacy technicians for more information.

You are required to keep your documents (e.g., certificates of course completion, evidence of your implementation) for two years in case the college requires hard copies.