Continuing Pharmacy Education

Faculty of Health

Accreditation Guidelines

To ensure your accreditation application is processed before November 30, 2023, your application must be submitted in full by THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2023.

Whether you're attending a live presentation or presenting one, Dalhousie Continuing Pharmacy Education can assign the appropriate CE units for you.  Having a live presentation accredited ensures that you can use those CE units for your yearly Professional Development Record.  Having your presentation accredited prior to the presentation date can help you attract more participants.   

NSCP - Standards of Practice: General Pharmacy Practice (March 2014)  

To accredit or not to accredit

After discussion with the NSCP, the following guiding principles were developed to clarify the accreditation of activities for continuing education units:

  • The purpose of annual mandatory continuing education units’ acquisition as a requirement of licensure is an attempt to ensure that pharmacists maintain and improve their core competencies (MICC) as defined in the Model Standards of Practice for Canadian Pharmacists – with the ultimate goal of public protection.
  • Educational activities / opportunities are assessed for their value in assisting pharmacy professionals to MICC, and are assigned CE units based on their MICC time.
  • Activities which are a part of a pharmacy professional's daily responsibilities and / or are described in a pharmacy professional's job portfolio are not eligible for accreditation.  Furthermore, programs designed to familiarize or train a pharmacy professional on an employer’s policies and procedures are also not eligible for accreditation.
  • There are many opportunities for pharmacy professional to be involved in promoting and supporting the profession, as well as serving the public.  While pharmacy professionals are encouraged to participate in these opportunities as productive and contributing members of society, they are not eligible for accreditation unless there is unmistakable MICC value.

Pharmacy professionals are encouraged to be reflective of their practice - determining their knowledge/skills needs - and to pursue educational opportunities that meet these needs.  The diversity of accredited (or accreditation eligible) activities for pharmacy professional facilitates this form of self-directed learning and is the recommended process for meeting the CE licensure requirement.