The launch of the National Pharmacy Technician Bridging Program this September will have an impact on pharmacy assistants in the “current” pathway working towards registration as a pharmacy technician. If you are in the “current” pathway, you are now required to complete both the Jurisprudence Exam (JE) and the Professional Practice course.
BC students are reminded that they have greater flexibility and can choose between the UBC-CPPD in-class or online Pharmacy Technician Bridging Education Program or Selkirk College’s online program. As a reminder the deadline to complete all requirements and register with the College as a pharmacy technician for those in the “current” pathways is December 31, 2015.
It’s not just members of the profession that get a say in where the College should concentrate its efforts in improving the quality of pharmacy care in the province over the next three years – the public gets a say too. Over the summer, the College engaged with members of the public all over the province in an online forum designed to elicit what they thought about what quality service in pharmacy looked like to them and what, as members of the public, they expect when they require the services and expertise of a pharmacist, pharmacy technician, or pharmacy.
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
I find it interesting how we are so focused on moving everything to being electronic or digital, and how this is viewed as being progressive. For some things I think this is true, that moving to digital formats offers many advantages. In other cases, I don’t. This sentiment will be amusing to those that know me, as I am almost completely paperless, both at home and at work.
Last December, the College received over 14,000 emails from the public overwhelmingly opposed to ending the practice of providing a kickback to customers in exchange for their prescriptions. After careful consideration, the College still firmly believes that paying patients for prescriptions is unprofessional, unethical, and unsafe. The College is dedicated to ending this practice.
Only those pharmacy technicians that are registered by the College may be called pharmacy technicians. Name tags and other identifying documents must be changed to reflect pharmacy technician’s restricted title.
The College would like to congratulate the following people for 50 years of service:
John J. Cepuran
Don Dickie
Beverly Harris
John Holden
Gerald Morris
Norm Thomas
According to recently released national statistics from NAPRA, there are more than 36,000 licensed pharmacists practicing in Canada. In 2013, there was also an increase in excess of 150% for licensed pharmacy technicians in the country (from 504 in 2012 to 1,428 technicians in 2013). It is believed that this upward trend will certainly continue as more jurisdictions license pharmacy technicians in the years to come.
For more information click here.
Health Canada has developed a policy statement on the electronic ordering of controlled substances. The policy can be viewed here.