October 21, 2025

Friday Five (October 24, 2025)

The October 24, 2025 edition of the Friday Five is now available.

  1. Mandatory Professional Development and Renewal Reminder 
  2. Failure to File Fee Reminder 
  3. Conscientious Objection 
  4. Canadian Patient Safety Week 
  5. Continuing Competency Matters 
  6. New Consumer Medication Safety Website
  7. Professional Development Opportunities & Upcoming Events

Mandatory Professional Development and Renewal Reminder 

Mandatory Professional Development 

This year’s mandatory webinar, Advancing Equity in Pharmacy: Supporting Gender Diversity and 2SLGBTQ+ Patients, must be viewed by October 31, 2025.  

Pharmacy professionals must view and receive your statement of completion of Advancing Equity in Pharmacy: Supporting Gender Diversity and 2SLGBTQ+ Patients before completing your renewal. Once you complete your renewal, you cannot add any new professional development learning activities.  

The following document, posted in the “Announcements” section of your Registrant Portal, provides essential details for accessing and completing the current and previous mandatory modules: https://cphm.alinityapp.com/Client/PersonGroup/OpenDoc/1000073?ts=20251008094318. 

If you have questions about the mandatory professional development or did not receive your statement of participation, please contact profdevelopment@cphm.ca. 

Renewal 

All pharmacy professionals and pharmacies are responsible for completing their renewal by November 15, 2025, to avoid the late fee. 

Pharmacy professionals and pharmacy managers should refer to the dedicated 2026 renewal guides sent to their email for further information on how to complete their renewal. 

*Note for pharmacy managers: 

CPhM continues to receive questions about where to find declarations forms. These forms are available within the pharmacy renewal notice email. If you cannot locate your forms, please check your email (and junk folder) for the renewal notice sent by CPhM. 

CPhM thanks everyone for their cooperation and prompt attention to renewal.     

If you require clarification or have any questions, please contact registration@cphm.ca for assistance. 

Failure to File Fee Reminder 

As of January 1, 2025, the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba (CPhM) has implemented a new policy regarding the reporting of any changes in pharmacy ownership or pharmacy manager. Failure to report these changes within the specified timeframe, as outlined in The Pharmaceutical Act (the Act) and The Pharmaceutical Regulation (Regulation), will result in a ‘Failure to File’ fee. This policy ensures that pharmacies and pharmacists remain in compliance with the Act and Regulation.   

For more information, including a detailed FAQ, visit the CPhM website under https://cphm.ca/about-the-college/professionalregulation/policies/ or contact registration@cphm.ca for further information. 

Conscientious Objection 

 The College of Pharmacists of Manitoba (CPhM) is aware of cases involving inadequate communications around conscientious objection. As a reminder, Statement IX of the Code of Ethics states, “Pharmacists shall respect the rights of patients to receive healthcare.” This includes ensuring patients can obtain services from another pharmacist or pharmacy in a reasonable time frame when a pharmacist is unable or unwilling to provide the service due to conscientious objection. 

Clear communication is a critical aspect of the Conscientious Objection Practice Direction. This includes: 

  • Communication with Pharmacy Manager: Pharmacists with a conscientious objection must immediately provide a written declaration outlining their objection to their current or any subsequent pharmacy manager. This must be done well in advance of receiving a request for the pharmacy product or service.  This allows the pharmacy manager to develop a plan to ensure timely patient access to the product or service in question. 
  • Communication with Patients: Pharmacists must not describe the reason or basis of the objection to the patient. However, they are required to guide the patient or prescriber to another pharmacist or pharmacy that can provide the desired service or product. In providing this guidance, pharmacists must fulfil their duty of care to the patient in a manner that is non-judgmental, continuous, and non-discriminatory, without attempting to influence the patient’s opinion. 
  • Communication with Other Pharmacists/Pharmacies: To ensure continuity of care, pharmacists must promptly share all relevant drug records with the prescriber and/or other pharmacist who can fulfill the request. This may include communicating the patient’s timeline for needing the product or service in question. 

CPhM understands that certain drug products, which some pharmacists may have a conscientious objection to, may not always be routinely stocked by all pharmacies for various reasons, including drug supply issues and stock considerations. In such cases, pharmacists are expected to communicate clearly and take the appropriate steps to support patient access. In all cases, it is helpful to communicate timelines with the patient to help ensure prompt access. Respectful and clear communication with patients and other healthcare professionals is critical to avoiding misunderstandings and fulfilling the pharmacist’s duty of care to the patient. 

Canadian Patient Safety Week 

Since its launch in 2005, Canadian Patient Safety Week has been an annual national campaign focused on raising awareness and promoting making healthcare safer for everyone.  

This year’s theme, All Voices for Safer Care, highlights the importance of clear communication in healthcare settings. Safer care is a collective responsibility among all members of a patient’s healthcare team, including the patient themselves.  

Pharmacy professionals play a vital role in patient safety and are often the most accessible healthcare provider for many members of the public. By listening carefully, encouraging questions, and engaging in open dialogue, pharmacy professionals can help make healthcare safer for everyone. 

Healthcare Excellence Canada has created several resources, including a series of webinars for Canadian Patient Safety Week 2025. You can explore these resources and learn more about the theme for this year by visiting their official campaign page: https://www.healthcareexcellence.ca/en/what-we-do/all-programs/canadian-patient-safety-week/. 

Continuing Competency Matters 

In earlier versions of Continuing Competency Matters, the best practice of using quality data from registrants’ own practices to guide their continuing professional development (CPD) was addressed. Ideally, this data is routinely collected by an unbiased third party and available to registrants for their use in CPD.  

National CPD requirements for physicians across Canada require a portion of the required CPD credits to be based on such quality data. The College of Family Physicians of Canada’s MAINPRO requires Certified Assessment credits in which analysis of data, including providing or receiving feedback, stimulates self-reflection and leads to practice improvement (CFPC MAINPRO). The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada has a similar requirement, referred to as Feedback and Improvement CPD (RCPSC MOCOMP).  

In addition to meeting national CPD requirements, physicians must also fulfill their provincial medical regulatory authority’s requirements for continuing competency (CC), quality assurance, or quality improvement [(i)]. These provincial requirements are often designed so physicians can meet both the provincial CC and national CPD requirements via the same activities.   

For the quality data-based programs, collection, review, and use of 360° feedback from patients, peers, and non-physician colleagues is a common requirement administered by the Medical Council of Canada (MCC) (MCC 360). Feedback from 25 patients, 8 physician peers, and 8 non-physician colleagues is reported to MCC, which creates an individualized report and provides a coaching session to facilitate understanding and analysis of the feedback and develop strategies for improvement in areas of need. This approach is based on research documenting health professional’s benefit from coaching if performance feedback is to lead to practice improvement (R2C2 Feedback Model).   

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) also uses coaching to support practice improvement through their Quality Improvement Program (CPSO QI Program). On a cyclical basis, physicians are required to complete this program. In addition to discussing a chart review with a trusted peer, CPSO also requires physicians to use their own practice-level data to identify areas for improvement and offers coaching to support the physician’s development of practice improvement plans.  

Most pharmacy provincial regulatory authorities have adopted principles of feedback and coaching in their cyclical practice assessments. The Saskatchewan College of Pharmacy Professionals (SCPP) is the first to include third-party quality assessment data as part of their cyclical Competency Assurance program (SCPP CAP). Ongoing SCPP work via Masters projects has started to address the lack of validated practice quality measures in pharmacy by developing patient feedback tools for community pharmacy practice and peer feedback for hospital pharmacy. Ideally, these and other practice quality measures will be further developed to support pharmacy professionals in their efforts to continually improve their quality of pharmacy practice.   

Future editions of Continuing Competency Matters will provide potential CCP models for CPhM, developed from best practices and informed by ongoing Focus Group feedback from practicing pharmacists in Manitoba. 

i. The terminology used to refer to programs that aim to ensure the continuing quality of practice varies across provinces and professions.  

New Consumer Medication Safety Website 

MedError.ca is a national website designed to collect medication error reports from the public across Canada. Developed by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada (ISMP Canada) and supported by Health Canada, the platform features an easy-to-use reporting tool co-created with input from patients and healthcare providers. 

Every report can contribute to learning, which can drive change and improve safety.  Additionally, the platform offers guidance and support options for patients who have experienced medication errors. With the tools and information available on the platform, patients can actively contribute to reducing medication errors and enhancing healthcare safety.  

To learn more, visit: https://mederror.ca/

Professional Development Opportunities Upcoming Events

Optimizing Prescription Writing: Essentials and Updates in 30 Minutes 

  • Click here to access the prerecorded webinar 
  • 1.0 CEU

2025 Mandatory Professional Development – Advancing Equity in Pharmacy: Supporting Gender Diversity and 2SLGBTQ+ Patients 

Pharmacy professionals who were unable to attend the live webinar on February 5, 2025, must view a recording of the 2025 mandatory continuing education session by clicking here. 

Targeting Social Isolation and Loneliness 

  • To register for the self-paced e-modules and for further information click here. 
  • 2.0 CEU 

 Manitoba Immunization Program New Training Module – Immunizing Young Children – Best Practices