All pharmacists* must complete the new Continuing Competence Program (CCP) by May 31, 2015 to be eligible to renew their 2015/2016 practice permit. All CCP materials are available through the CCP portal on the ACP website.
You are reminded to complete the mandatory CCP tutorial intended to help you learn about the new competence program. This tutorial is available in the Self-Assessment/Prescribed Activities section of the CCP portal. In addition to this tutorial, refer to the Competence Program FAQ section on the ACP website, and recent issues of acpnews, for additional tips on how to meet the competence program requirements.
* Exception: those who registered for the first time on the clinical register between January 1, 2015 and June 30, 2015.
1. I’m currently on maternity leave or I’m not living in Alberta right now. Can I be excused from the Continuing Competence Program?
No. All pharmacists on the clinical register 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 licence to practise pharmacy, you are responsible for maintaining your competence.
If you feel that you cannot complete the requirements of the competence program and are NOT currently practising as a pharmacist in Alberta, you may choose to move to the associate register. However, when you move into the associate register, you are NOT permitted to practise as a pharmacist and no fees will be refunded. When you are ready to return to practice, you would have to reinstate as a clinical pharmacist and complete requirements per the reinstatement policies.
2. How can I implement learning if I’m not currently working in a pharmacy?
The competence program was designed to be applicable to pharmacists practising in different environments, including pharmacists who are not in direct patient care. What you choose to learn and implement should be based on your personal and professional learning and practice needs and current situation. Your implementation objective may be related to your current practice, your future practice, or your overall professional practice.
Refer to the competence program articles in our recent issues of acpnews for tips on how to complete the new program. The Nov/Dec issue includes an article on how to implement learning outside of pharmacy practice.
3. What are the requirements of an implementation?
Your implementation must:
- Result in one of the following outcomes:
- Improvement to your professional practice, organization, and/or the way care is delivered; or
- Transfer of knowledge, skill, or ability to others
- Affect another individual (a patient, a co-worker, another healthcare professional)
- Produce evidence of implementation
- Directly involve the application of at least 1 CEU
- Relate to one of the pharmacy domains (pharmacy practice, medical knowledge, or systems-based practice)
Should your Implementation Record be chosen for audit, your peers will be looking for the following:
- The learning activities identified are relevant to the implementation objective
- The implementation objective is clearly outlined and relates to pharmacy practice, medical knowledge, and/or systems-based practice
- The rationale and relevance behind the chosen implementation objective are clearly indicated
- The steps the pharmacist took to achieve the implementation objective are clearly indicated and it is evident that the pharmacist played a role in the implementation
- The outcome of the implementation is clearly explained
- It is clearly evident that the implementation objective was achieved
- The information submitted is professional
4. What supporting documentation should I upload as my evidence of implementation?
You only need to submit one piece of evidence that showcases what you’ve achieved. Depending on what you’ve implemented, this may be a patient’s record of care, revised policies and procedures, or a resource/presentation you’ve developed. Choose the one piece of evidence that you believe best showcases what you’ve achieved and demonstrates that it was achieved by you during the current CE cycle (includes your name and a date within the current CE cycle). Depending on your evidence, you may wish to provide additional narrative in the Implementation Record or directly on the evidence to provide further explanation.
5. How do I get the “checkmarks” to appear?
The progress indicator on the CCP portal home page lists the three components of the competence program: 1. Self-Assessment/Prescribed Activities; 2. Learning Records; and 3. Implementation Records. Once you have met a component’s requirements, a checkmark should appear next to its title on the home page; checkmarks do not appear on the other pages. You may need to log out and into the portal again in order for the checkmark to appear. Here are the requirements to complete each component:
Self-Assessment/Prescribed Activities
- Complete the CCP tutorial.
Learning Records
- Complete a minimum of 15 CEUs within the current CE cycle and document each learning activity on a Learning Record.
- Answer questions one through seven in each Learning Record.
Implementation Records
- Answer questions one through eight in the Implementation Record.
- Identify at least 1 CEU that is directly related to your implementation (Question 1).
- Upload one piece of documentation that provides evidence of your implementation (Question 8).
- Select one completed Implementation Record for submission.
