Pharmacy Technician Certification Program Concludes As Preparation for Regulation Continues

Congratulations to those who have completed the certification exam. You have demonstrated your knowledge and commitment to practise at a professional standard established by your peers. Your achievement helped to demonstrate the readiness of your profession to accept the challenge of self-regulation, and you have played an important role in shaping the future of pharmacy practice.

The College continues to move forward with the regulation of pharmacy technicians by 2010 in Ontario. In parallel, regulation initiatives have been advancing in other provinces and the College has been working closely with our national partners to establish a consistent implementation model across the country.

One recent and significant development is that the Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada (PEBC) intends to administer a national evaluating exam which will be similar to the Colleges certification exam. In order to support a national process and avoid provincial duplication, College Council decided, at the September 2007 meeting, to discontinue the Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam, after the October 2008 exam administration.

What’s the Significance of this Decision?
The College had already determined that pharmacy technicians who wish to pursue registration with the College need to complete the certification exam as the first step in the transition process (click here to read the article published in Pharmacy Connection, Jan/Feb 2007). Given that the PEBC evaluating exam will be comparable to the current OCP exam, the College will accept completion of EITHER the OCP certification exam OR the PEBC evaluating exam as meeting this requirement. Therefore, the decision to discontinue the certification exam after the October 2008 administration should have little impact on pharmacy technicians who wish to move forward toward registration.

Individuals can apply for the April or October 2008 administration of the certification exam or wait and apply for the PEBC evaluating exam which will be available in 2009.

The biggest impact of this decision is that it signals the end of the College’s certification program. At the time the exam was established in 1997, it addressed an important need within the pharmacy profession in Ontario. Certification signalled to others that an individual with the CPhT designation had demonstrated the necessary knowledge to practise in the role defined in the Guidelines for the Pharmacist on the Role of the Pharmacy Technician, and was committed to maintaining their professional development. Now, ten years later, pharmacy practice is changing again and pharmacy technicians will play a different and expanded role, as defined in the Competency Profile for Pharmacy Technicians (2003). Instead of certification, registration with the College will serve as the means of signalling to others that an individual possesses the knowledge, skills, and ability to fulfill the new role and accept professional accountability for quality patient care services.