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The Government of Saskatchewan is providing $137,000 to the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Pharmacy and Nutrition for a new training program.
The announcement of the advanced pharmacy training program on Wednesday means some practising pharmacists will be going back to school on a part-time basis so they can eventually prescribe drugs to those suffering from a variety of chronic conditions like diabetes, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obesity, heart failure and high blood pressure.
Danielle Larocque, associate director of the university’s Continuing Pharmacy Education Unit, said the new opportunity will help improve health-care access for those who are suffering the effects of the province’s family doctor shortage.
“With the doctor shortage and patients struggling to find a primary-care provider, this will be a new avenue for them to access service,” Larocque said.
“Being able to go to a pharmacist to assess their care and medication management is just a new avenue for health care.”
The new program is expected to launch in January with an initial cohort of 20 students. Those students are expected to complete the program by next spring.
“I can see it alleviating other primary-care practices,” Larocque explained.
“It will alleviate some of the pressures that they have in the doctor’s office. Patients will be able to get in for more acute care and diagnostics (with) nurse practitioners and physicians, while the pharmacists can manage the medications and do that collaborative care.”
The pharmacists taking part in the program will be able to take the majority of the course online while they continue to work.
“They will have some hands-on training, a little bit of physical assessment, and then they will do some practicum experience, following maybe a nurse practitioner or a physician to do a little practical experience,” Larocque added.
Gordon Wyant, Saskatchewan’s minister of Advanced Education, suggested the direct impacts of this program should be seen in rural Saskatchewan.
“Usually, pharmacists are the first point of contact for a lot of people, especially in rural Saskatchewan,” he explained. “Being able to provide some additional training to pharmacists to do this work, I think, is pretty important for Saskatchewan.”
Wyant said the government and college have been working on the training program for a long time, but he noted that regulatory issues slowed the process.
“Before the government can provide funding to develop a program, the regulatory authorities have to develop their own kind of programs and protocols for that to happen,” Wyant said. “That has now happened, and that allows the government to make the investments and the college to develop the course.”
According to the government, the creation of this new program puts Saskatchewan into closer alignment with provinces that have advanced prescribing authority for pharmacists, including Alberta and Nova Scotia.