2013 College of Pharmacists of BC Road Show Vol 38 No 3 - June/July/August 2013 | Sep. 11, 2013 Engagement, Strategic Plan

We went on the road this Spring, visiting pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in five cities provincewide. 131 of you took the time to meet up with College Registrar Bob Nakagawa and Director of Public Accountability and Engagement Mykle Ludvigsen in Burnaby, Victoria, Prince George, Kelowna and Langley. Board members Bal Dhillon, Kris Gustavson, and Bob Craigue also attended sessions in their areas to engage with you on the work of the College and our upcoming strategic plan.

We also took time to tour many local pharmacies and to learn about your practice – both hospital and community – and the patients that you serve. It was an invaluable experience to meet, connect with, and learn about what pharmacists and pharmacy technicians do in their daily work environment. These opportunities are vital to the College so that we can ensure our work is connected to the work you do serving British Columbians each and every day. The hospitality from all the pharmacies that we visited was amazing and we thank you for it.

Special thanks to:

Our sessions were made up of two parts: Q&A sessions with pharmacists and pharmacy technicians and then a follow up activity to engage you in the College’s 2013-2016 strategic plan. The Q&A sessions were designed to allow you to pose questions to the Registrar on any subject. You weren't shy about asking a variety of questions on a number of current College issues. Questions raised included the College’s complaint process, PDAP improvement, disciplinary hearings, and the process of pharmacy technician regulation.

In the second part of the session, we put you to work. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians were asked to work in small groups to brainstorm ideas for five key questions, to provide direct feedback to Board committees set up to develop quality improvement initiatives in five areas. We asked you:

1. What could we do to better ensure our standards are being met?
2. How can we better use technology to enhance patient care?
3. What are key skills that pharmacists and technicians will need to attain in order to meet the needs of the future?
4. What are examples of things that we can do to improve the relationships with other healthcare professionals?
5. How can we inform the public about our role as pharmacists and pharmacy technicians?

The brainstorming session produced some interesting results that will help us in developing a new strategic plan.  

All of the thoughts have been collected and have already been reviewed by the Board committees and are available online here.

Through the College’s engagement strategy, we want to be more accessible to pharmacists and pharmacy technicians across the province. If you missed out this Spring, we hope to be in your community (or one near you!) very soon!