Part A & Part B Register

There are a number of activities which the College considers as patient care activities. These include activities with individual patients as well as with patient populations which can be distilled to the level of providing individual patient care.

With this in mind, patient care for pharmacists involves any of the following (this list is not exhaustive):

• Providing pharmacy services to individual patients or their advocate. In this context, an advocate could be another healthcare provider who is part of the patient’s circle of care, or the patient’s authorized caregiver.
• In addition to the traditional community and hospital pharmacist’s patient-facing activities, this may include:
  • Medication incident, ADR reporting or patient complaints where an assessment is undertaken for individual patients
  • Individual patient assessment of sentinel events
  • Individual patient assessment/consultation for MAiD
  • Individual patient assessment/consultation for Opioid and Antimicrobial Stewardship
  • Individual patient assessment/consultation for non-formulary medications, drug shortages and backorders
• Compounding, dispensing, prescribing and having custody of drugs
• Providing information and education related to the use of drugs, health care aids or devices to individual patients or their advocate considered within that patient’s circle of care
• Promoting health, prevention and treatment of disease, disorders and dysfunctions through monitoring and management of medication therapy for individual patients
• Population-based patient care activities could include the following:
  • Contributing to management within a pharmacy, including:
    • Create and maintain policies and procedures to ensure a safe workplace environment
    • Collaboration with other healthcare providers in the organization
    • Provide committee support
    • Collaborating with Public Health
  • Collaboration with pharmacists on recalls and backorders, expiry dates, and beyond-use-date extensions
  • Ensuring Formulary Management including additions and deletions
  • Provision of drug information
  • Authoring or Contributing to Order Sets and Medical Directives
  • Collaborating on Antimicrobial Stewardship Program
  • Collaborating on Opioid Stewardship Programs
  • Collaborating on Medication Safety Initiatives including medication safety report tracking and trending and high alert medications
  • Collaborating on Medication Reconciliation initiatives
  • Clinical Trials oversight and decision making
  • Creating or updating Smart Pump builds
  • Required reporting to Health Canada
  • Automation activities, bar code compliance or override decisions

There are a number of activities which the College considers as patient care activities. These include activities with individual patients and patient populations that can be distilled to the level of providing individual patient care.

Patient care activities would include performing any of the controlled acts under the RHPA, as well as engaging in activities linked to the NAPRA Model Standards of Practice for Pharmacy Technicians.

With the above in mind, patient care activities for pharmacy technicians could involve any of the following (this list is not exhaustive):

• Providing pharmacy services to individual patients or their advocate. In this context, an advocate could be another healthcare provider who is part of the patient’s circle of care, or the patient’s authorized caregiver.
• In addition to the traditional community and hospital pharmacy technician’s patient-facing activities, this may include:
  • Educates patients with the selection and demonstration of drug administration devices, monitoring devices, and health and compliance aids.
  • Supports a culture of patient safety by appropriately:
    • resolving missing doses (including referring to a pharmacist if needed)
    • identifying medication incidents and near misses/good catches
    • identifying and reporting safety issues
  • Prepares sterile or non-sterile compounds according to all relevant guidelines and standards of practice.
  • Perform point-of-care tests within scope
  • Administer vaccines by injection within scope
  • Preparing a Best Possible Medication History (BPMH) as part of the Medication Reconciliation process
  • Product Preparation and Dispensing as part of the Drug Distribution process
• Referring to the pharmacist patients who require assessment, clinical analysis, or application of therapeutic knowledge
  • Confirms the pharmacist has reviewed the therapeutic appropriateness of the drug therapy/products prior to release for both new and refill prescriptions/orders
  • Confirms where the pharmacist is involved in the process
    • Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) with Pharmacist verification
    • Performs order entry with pharmacist verification
    • Compounding recipes/formulas
  • Confirms patient assessment by a pharmacist prior to vaccine administration
• Maintain inventory systems
  • Supports the maintenance of safe and efficient management or product distribution anywhere drugs are stored
• Population-based patient care activities could include the following:
  • Contributing to management within a pharmacy, including:
    • Maintain inventory (including automated inventory) and appropriate storage
    • Complete audits and reconciliations for controlled substances according to current laws, regulations, and policies, identifying and reporting any discrepancies
    • Workflow management
    • Routine equipment maintenance and cleaning, including compounding, packaging, dispensing, and storage equipment
    • Create and maintain policies and procedures to ensure a safe workplace environment
    • Collaboration with other healthcare providers in the organization
    • Provides committee support
  • Barcoding, repackaging product(s)
  • Product Preparation and Dispensing as part of the Drug Distribution process (including patient care areas)
  • Collaboration with pharmacists on recalls and backorders, expiry dates, and beyond-use-date extensions
  • Preparing and Auditing
    • Wardstock, Crash carts, OR Trays
    • Expiries
    • Inventory

Part A pharmacists must:

• Complete a self-declaration of competence to provide patient care
• Have a Designated Practice Assessment (DPA) site in Ontario
• Complete the Knowledge Assessment when selected
• Participate in a Practice Assessment when selected
• Participate in professional development and maintain a Learning Portfolio
• Have personal professional liability insurance
• Uphold the ethical and practice standards of the profession

Part A pharmacy technicians must:

• Complete a self-declaration of competence to provide patient care
• Have a Designated Practice Assessment (DPA) site in Ontario
• Participate in a Practice Assessment when selected
• Participate in a Self-Assessment when selected
• Participate in professional development and maintain a Learning Portfolio
• Have personal professional liability insurance
• Uphold the ethical and practice standards of the profession

Part B pharmacists must:

• Uphold the ethical and practice standards of the profession

Examples of roles that would typically align with Part B of the Register include but are not limited to administration, academia, government, the pharmaceutical industry, and consulting firms. However, these pharmacists who wish to remain in Part A of the Register could do so by providing patient care in another setting and meeting the requirements listed under “Requirements of Part A Registrants” above.

Part B pharmacy technicians must:

• Uphold the ethical and practice standards of the profession

Examples of roles that would typically align with Part B of the Register include but are not limited to administration, academia, government, the pharmaceutical industry, and consulting firms. However, these pharmacy technicians who wish to remain in Part A of the Register could do so by providing patient care in another setting and meeting the requirements listed under “Requirements of Part A Registrants” above.

A Part B pharmacist who wishes to move to Part A of the Register must notify the College of their intention by emailing [email protected], and then successfully complete the following two requirements:

1. Knowledge Assessment, and

2. Practice Assessment (choose one option below)

• Option 1: Practice Assessment of Competence at Entry (PACE) at assessor’s practice site
• Option 2: Practice Assessment by a College practice advisor at practice site of your choice
• Option 3: Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada’s (PEBC) Objective Structured Clinical Exam for Pharmacists (OSCE)

Pharmacists may select the Practice Assessment option of their choice, based on their own readiness for practice and the timing, frequency and availability of the required assessments. For more information, please see the Process for Moving from Part B to Part A.

A Part B pharmacy technician who wishes to move to Part A of the Register must notify the College of their intention by emailing [email protected], and then successfully complete the following requirement:

1. Practice assessment (choose one option below)

• Option 1: Practice Assessment of Competence at Entry (PACE) at assessor’s practice site
• Option 2: Practice Assessment by a College practice advisor at practice site of your choice
• Option 3: Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada’s (PEBC) Objective Structured Clinical Exam for Pharmacists (OSCE)

Pharmacy technicians may select the Practice Assessment option of their choice, based on their own readiness for practice and the timing, frequency and availability of the required assessments.

For more information, please see the Process for Moving from Part B to Part A.