One area that has always been a source of struggle for regulated members when it comes to continuing competence is deciding where they should focus their learning. What would be a good topic or course to dig into? What has more value—accredited or non-accredited learning?
We asked three pharmacy professionals how they approach their learning on an annual basis to provide some inspiration to regulated members who struggle with these decisions.
Sarah Fearnside
Sarah has been a pharmacy technician since 2014 and has worked in a variety of practice settings including corrections, acute care, and community practice. She is currently an instructor with the Pharmacy Technician Diploma program at NorQuest College in Edmonton and practises at an acute care hospital.
How do you approach your continuing education, especially considering that you’re an educator yourself?
My learning has been driven by gaps that I identify either within my own knowledge or within the practice environments that I work. For example, in 2022 when I was working in community practice, I noticed that there were opportunities to improve how we were handling hazardous medications. My learning was spending time reviewing the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) hazardous drug handling guidelines. With that learning, I developed a set of practical handling recommendations and provided that to our pharmacy licensee so that she could share it with the team.
Another example is from 2023 when I was teaching a community pharmacy theory course. When I was reviewing the material, I noticed that some of the information about the opioid dependency program and community-based naloxone was out of date. So, I did quite a bit of research that year and updated the textbook that we use for that course.
What do you derive from reflecting on and documenting your learning?
I self-describe as a lifelong learner—that’s just the nature of who I am. When I reflect on the learning I’ve done, it shows I’ve been able to strengthen my practice over the years. There are tangible changes. Not only is there an outcome to practice which can benefit me, my teams, and my students, but it’s also made me a more confident pharmacy professional.
Regulated members have the option of doing accredited learning and non-accredited learning. Can you share your thoughts on the differences in the value of each?
Maybe I’m an anomaly, but most of my learning over the last 10 plus years has been non-accredited and there are a couple of reasons for that. Of course, the advantage of accredited learning is that it’s been reviewed and presented in an unbiased, accurate way. However, sometimes there can be cost barriers to accessing it. Sometimes you have to attend conferences to receive accredited learning, and sometimes the accredited learning just doesn’t exist for what I want to learn.
A perfect example of this was the Alberta Health Services community-based Naloxone program. There was no accredited learning available for that, so I ended up doing some non-accredited learning, ensuring that the information I was researching or reading was still evidence based.
For non-accredited learning, it’s really important to assess the quality of the information to make sure it’s relevant, accurate, evidence based, and peer reviewed.
What other advice do you have for pharmacy technicians trying to decide what to focus their learning on?
Pharmacy technicians should be empowered to seek out relevant learning rather than just any accredited learning that “checks the boxes” for their registration requirements. When you seek out learning materials that are applicable to your current practice or your knowledge gaps, the whole idea of continuing competence is more meaningful to you as a professional.
Lisa Forster
Lisa is a pharmacist with Covenant Health in Edmonton. She works with patients at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital’s Women’s Wellness Program.
How do you approach your continuing education?
A lot of my learning is focused on staying up to date with best practice guidelines and new evidence. I am a certified menopause practitioner through The Menopause Society, so I like to do any courses or continuing education that comes through them. I additionally look for any other women’s health-related learning activities. Being up to date on current evidence in menopause-related topics is very important in my role as this information is shared with patients so they can be involved in the decision-making process. I also work in our dispensary at the Grey Nuns, so I need to have knowledge outside of what I do with the Menopause Clinic. I like to look for accredited, pharmacist-specific activities to make sure that I’m up to date on other topics such as diabetes, depression, or heart failure, so I have awareness of what’s new in other areas so that I feel comfortable when I’m working in the dispensary.
How does this specific learning make you a better pharmacist?
Given the nature of my practice in a clinic setting, I have the opportunity to follow up with my patients regularly. This follow up gives me a good sense of how I’m doing as a pharmacist and how well I have addressed the patient’s menopause-related needs. I get a lot of questions from patients with respect to menopausal care as there is a lot of misinformation at present on the internet and on social media. This makes our work a little bit more challenging in the clinic as we really do need to be up to date on what the actual evidence is. My patients’ questions help me to identify what I need to look into further so that I am confident I am providing patients with the best evidence-based information.
When you reflect on and document what you’ve learned, does that give you a sense of accomplishment?
It really does. I’m very proud of what I do, and I love being a pharmacist. A lot of what we’re doing in the Menopause Clinic is related to patients’ quality of life. It feels good to know I’ve made a difference in my patients’ lives. When I see that my contribution as a pharmacist has improved quality of life, I feel proud that I’ve been a part of that journey. This then circles back to the importance of doing my very best to stay as up to date as I can so that I can make a difference for my patients.
What advice do you have for regulated members?
I would say listen to your patients and listen to their questions, wherever you practice. This will guide you in determining your continuing education needs. Think of frequently asked questions or concerns that have come up in your practice. Then think about what you could do or learn so that you’re better able to address these questions or situations and be confident with dealing with them. I’ve been practising 25 years, and this concept still works well for me.
Pam Borth
Pam is a member of ACP’s Competence Committee and a quality consultant for Covenant Health in Edmonton.
How do you decide what areas you would like to focus on?
In my role as a quality consultant, I’m exposed to a broad range of clinical scenarios. I seek out information about current issues that I’m dealing with through a safety lens. There are a wide variety of learning opportunities through Health Excellence Canada and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) Canada Safety Bulletins. From my pharmacy technician lens, I look at topics that keep me current in practice, but I always bring it back to my quality and patient safety role.
When you reflect on and document what you’ve learned, does that give you a sense of accomplishment?
Absolutely, because you can forget the significance of your learning while you’re doing it. But when I document it, I realize how helpful it was, because I not only integrated my learning into my own work, but I was also able to share that knowledge with my team members, which is so rewarding.
How do you compare the value of accredited versus non-accredited learning?
They both have such significant value. The accredited learning obviously aligns with standards and regulations. Non-accredited learning can be meaningful learning that comes from conversations through the informal sharing of knowledge, perhaps from a working group meeting. It could be learning you hadn’t even planned on pursuing.
What advice do you have for regulated members?
The past few years I have focused on collaborative learning. I’m so drawn to that. Sometimes you don’t even realize how much you’re learning in a team huddle, for example, or how much you’re learning when you walk on to the nursing unit to deliver medications. I encourage regulated members to be aware of how much learning there is everywhere.
