Home Professional Registration Part A & Part B Register

Part A & Part B Register

The College maintains a two-part register for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians

Part A – registrants who provide patient care
Part B – registrants who do not provide patient care

Whether to elect into Part A or B of the Register is an individual decision based on a self-assessment of one’s competency and practice, and it is a self-declaration on the part of the registrant. All Part A registrants are required to make a self-declaration of competency during annual renewal.

Should a registrant have any questions regarding Part A and Part B of the Register, they can contact QA@ocpinfo.com.

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 where an assessment is undertaken for individual patients
- Individual patient assessment of sentinel events
Compounding, dispensing, prescribing and having custody of drugs
Providing health care aids and devices to assist individual patients or their advocate
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

Pharmacy Technicians

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 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

Requirements of Part A Registrants (provides patient care)

Pharmacists

Part A pharmacists must:

Complete a self-declaration of competence to provide patient care
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

Pharmacy Technicians

Part A pharmacy technicians must:

Complete a self-declaration of competence to provide patient care
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

Requirements of Part B Registrants (do not provide patient care)

Pharmacists

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.

Pharmacy Technicians

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.

Moving Between the Two Parts of the Register

Moving from Part A to Part B

A Part A registrant may move to Part B of the Register at any time. The registrant must notify the College by emailing registrantservices@ocpinfo.com of their intention to do so. The change would take place immediately or on the effective date provided by the registrant.

If you are a Part A registrant and wondering if you should move to Part B or resign your registration, please see Maintaining Your Registration FAQs. If you are interested in resigning, please see the Resigning & Reinstating webpage.

Moving from Part B to Part A

Pharmacists

A Part B pharmacist who wishes to move to Part A of the Register must notify the College of their intention by emailing RegPrograms@ocpinfo.com, and then successfully complete the following two requirements:

1. Knowledge Assessment, and

2. Practice Assessment (choose one option below)

Option 1: Practice Assessment by a College practice advisor at practice site of your choice

Option 2: Practice Assessment of Competence at Entry (PACE) at assessor’s practice site

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.

Pharmacy Technicians

A Part B pharmacy technician who wishes to move to Part A of the Register must notify the College of their intention by emailing RegPrograms@ocpinfo.com, and then successfully complete the following requirement:

Practice assessment (choose one option below)

Option 1: Practice assessment by a College practice advisor at practice site of your choice

Option 2: Practice Assessment of Competence at Entry (PACE) at assessor’s practice site

Option 3: Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada’s (PEBC) Objective Structured Performance Examination (OSPE)

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.

College Contact: RegPrograms@ocpinfo.com

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Process for Moving from Part B to Part A

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Resigning & Reinstating

APPLICATION TO MOVE FROM PART B TO PART A

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