Continuing Competence Program

Maintaining competence is a professional responsibility and the hallmark of self-regulated professionals. In this context, maintenance doesn’t mean staying the same, it means keeping up with (or ahead of) the changes around you.

According to your Code of Ethics, it is your professional responsibility to

• continuously improve your level of professional knowledge and skill,
• take responsibility for maintaining a high standard of professional competence,
• evaluate your individual practice and assume responsibility for improvement, and
• keep informed about new pharmaceutical knowledge.

According to the professionalism framework, an engaged pharmacy professional who is an active learner

• seeks out learning opportunities;
• keeps knowledge and professional skills up to date;
• maintains current understandings of the healthcare community they practise in (e.g., providers, agencies, policies);
• regularly self-evaluates and pursues opportunities for development; and
• embraces change and is committed to learning new things.

ACP has created the Continuing Competence Program (CCP) to help you meet these responsibilities. By identifying appropriate learning activities and implementing that learning into practice, you can continually build your competence and confidence to assure yourself, your patients, and your healthcare colleagues that you are providing quality care throughout your career.

• CCP manual for pharmacists
• CCP manual for pharmacy technicians

CCP cycle

The CCP requires the following of all pharmacists and pharmacy technicians each continuing education (CE) cycle:

• For pharmacists, the CE cycle starts June 1 of any year and ends May 31 of the following year.
• For pharmacy technicians, the CE cycle starts December 1 of any year and ends November 30 of the following year.

Practice Improvement Program

In some cases, registrants may be referred to ACP’s Practice Improvement Program (PIP). While participating in the program, registrants will work with the ACP competence staff and the competence committee to develop and carry out a plan to improve areas of their practice. The competence committee will assign activities to help those referred to the program to learn and improve their practice.

For more information on the Practice Improvement Program, refer to the CCP manuals for both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians found below and our Full Scale article.