Every regulated member’s path to becoming a pharmacy technician or pharmacist starts with their education. Academic institutions play a critical role in ensuring new regulated members are prepared to practise to the standards, as the knowledge and skills gained through their studies sets the foundation for their professional journeys.
During the development of the new standards, ACP consulted educational institutions from across the province. Representatives from pharmacist and pharmacy technician programs considered what implementation will mean for their programs and how they will support students. Interviewees included
- Jill Hall, clinical professor and director of the PharmD Program at the University of Alberta (U of A);
- Lily Mauer, chair of the Pharmacy Technician Diploma Program at NorQuest College; and
- Todderick (Todd) Prochnau, instructor for the Pharmacy Technician Program at Red Deer Polytechnic.
Jill considered how the U of A will incorporate the new standards for pharmacist students and Lily and Todd discussed how their pharmacy technician programs will incorporate the new standards for pharmacy technician students.
The new SPPPT is divided into eight domains. How does your curriculum align with these domains?
Jill
“I think that what ACP has been working towards with respect to person-centred care and the focus on ethics, equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility is what we’ve been prioritizing in our program development as well. The new standards have a real emphasis on patient autonomy. In our program, we’re always thinking about goal setting and shared decision making and skill development related to patient autonomy.
There is also more language around pharmacist responsibility and accountability, which is great. Through the U of A curriculum, we have students take increasing degrees of responsibility for decision making as they learn. In first year, they’re thinking about non-prescription products and helping patients self-select something for a common ailment. By their third year, they’re engaging in complex decision making with patients who have more complex needs.”
Lily
“We found there was alignment between the new standards and NorQuest’s curriculum across the eight domains. In terms of professionalism and leadership, we set professionalism expectations early in the program with a professionalism agreement so that students can self-reflect and get feedback from their instructors. For communication and collaboration, our students work with pharmacist students from the University of Alberta to learn about each other’s roles and scopes of practice. For continuous quality improvement, students are required to document errors. If they hand in a prescription that has an error, they need to document it, and that becomes part of their normal process. Those are a few examples.”
How does the curriculum help students appreciate the importance of prioritizing person-centred care?
Todd
“All of these domains are central to our curriculum. Person-centred care and professionalism are introduced in the first week of the two-year program and these concepts are a focus all the way through. When we’re designing patient scenarios for students, the focus is not simply solving one specific problem, it’s about the specific needs of a patient. We want students to appreciate that you have to think about what the person is actually telling you and respond to that—it always circles back to two-way communication.”
Lily
“Early in their learning, students focus on mastering tasks or specific skills. As they learn and progress in their courses, we reinforce that their interactions need to consider the person as a whole. They need to practice enough so that the technical skills become routine so that they can focus on their interaction with the patient. We push students more as they advance through the program to fully engage in the conversation and make that personal connection. Patient safety is always the focal point. What I appreciated about the new standards the most when reading them the first time was that they humanized patient care—that is our goal as well.”
Will the program need to adapt the way students are educated so that they will be able to meet practice expectations when they graduate?
Lily
“Much of what is new in the standards is already addressed in our curriculum. But there may be some shifts in approach and language. For example, with the shift in the standards from being task oriented to person centred, we will need to do the same shift. That might impact how we deliver basic theory and how our lab scenarios are structured. We will need to make sure everything comes back to person-centred care to align with the standards.
We will also review the terminology we use and build the terms defined in the standards into our curriculum. For example, we’ve always used the term ‘great catch,’ now, to align with the language in the standards, we’ll use ‘close call.’
These changes will help to ensure students are ready to enter practice. ACP’s standards are referenced throughout all of our courses, so we’re preparing for the task of updating a lot of references in our course materials.”
Jill
“We are working on incorporating more animal health into our curriculum. We currently have an elective course on veterinary medicine but otherwise there is not a lot of focus on animal-specific care in the core curriculum. We will also review the language and terms we use. The comprehensive list of terms in the new standards is helpful, and, while I think most of it is common and familiar, there are some concepts that are newly defined such as critical steps, just culture, and close calls. Overall, we are aligned but we’re always adapting and, ultimately, we’re growing in the same direction.”
How will the program equip students with the knowledge and skills to serve patients and the public in alignment with the new standards?
Jill
“Our students will be prepared to practise to the new standards upon graduation, recognizing that they are young people who are on a trajectory of personal and professional growth. Our curriculum addresses evidence-based medicine, what it means to be a pharmacist, what person-centred care looks like, and the importance of documentation. All of these concepts are introduced and then deepened and contextualized as students progress through the program.
I think it’s really important that we all continue to support that growth because they need to continue to learn and grow together as part of their communities. I am hopeful that the new standards will help ensure that when our students go out into practice, they are entering pharmacies that are aligned with how we teach them pharmacy can and should be.”
Todd
“Ultimately, I think that everything we’re doing as educators is to prepare pharmacy technicians to practise in alignment with the standards, which is going to equip them to provide effective patient care. We’re always asking the question: ‘How does this ultimately translate to caring for a patient?’
When students finish this program, they should not only be prepared to pass their exams and get practice permits—they need to be prepared to care for patients. Everything needs to come back to putting the patient right at the centre and ensuring that they ultimately get the best possible care.”
Lily
“Our goal is getting the students to have enough practice so that the technical tasks become comfortable and they can focus on the patient. When they’re engaging with the patient in a different way rather than running through their rubric in their head, they will be equipped to practise to the new standards and deliver person-centred care. Pharmacy practice relies on postsecondary institutions to ensure graduates enter the practice workforce ready. That’s our role, and it includes applying all relevant legislation and standards.”
