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Pharmacy Education Program

The BC Cancer Oncology Pharmacy Education Program is a self-directed, online continuing professional education program.
Program contents

Most of the content for this non-accredited program is written by BC Cancer pharmacists, and thus, incorporates the unique perspective of oncology pharmacy practice in British Columbia.

The Pharmacy Education Program is freely available to anyone with internet access, with the exception of the external Oncology Basics component, which requires a Canadian Association of Pharmacy in Oncology (CAPhO) membership.

See the Requirements tab for access instructions.

Recognizing that oncology pharmacy is a specialized field, the Pharmacy Education Program provides a structured framework to support ongoing knowledge development in a variety of oncology topics.


The program curriculum includes:

  • Core modules on reviewing chemotherapy orders and safely handling hazardous drugs
  • Advanced modules for further study on evidence-based therapeutic topics for clinical oncology practice
This is a non-accredited program.


Learning objectives

  1. Utilize a systematic approach to critically review chemotherapy orders.
  2. Access existing resources related to oncology health professionals and patients.
  3. Recognize the potential occupational risks associated with hazardous drugs.
  4. Apply safe handling practice standards when actively handling and while supervising others during the receipt, storage, preparation and disposal of hazardous drugs.
  5. Apply medication safety principles to reduce the number of medication errors associated with the prescribing, preparation, and administration of hazardous drugs.
  6. Describe the epidemiology, etiology, and classifications of cancer.
  7. Describe the various modalities of treatment in cancer management.
  8. Describe the pharmacology, common toxicities, monitoring parameters, and management strategies for common cancer therapies.
  9. Describe complications associated with vascular access devices and their management, including thrombosis and venous sclerosis.
  10. Describe the pathophysiology of common chemotherapy-associated toxicities and develop a care plan to prevent, minimize and manage these symptoms.

Technical requirements

Registration with password-protected websites as outlined in the following section.


Password-protected websites

Some reading materials in this program may require registration on certain healthcare websites. These password-protected sites were chosen to avoid less accessible alternatives, such as:
  • Requiring hard copies of textbooks or journal articles
  • Charging fees to cover copyright permissions for course content

Core clinical practice

Core modules cover the basic principles of cancer care and key topics in oncology pharmacy practice.


Cancer drug therapy

Safe handling of cancer drugs

Modules for further study

Cancer therapy management

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)

Patient counselling

Oncology Basics from CAPhO


  • CAPhO Oncology Basics - This program is recommended as part of the Core Clinical Practice curriculum. It was developed by the Canadian Association of Pharmacy in Oncology (CAPhO) and contains 6 modules for a total of 9.0 CEUs. CAPhO members continue to access it at no charge. It is also available to non-members with purchase of a one year, non-member enrolment with CAPhO.

Additional resources

Pharmacology

  • Cancer Drug Pharmacology Table (PDF) - This table provides a listing of cancer drugs used in B.C. that is consistent with the pharmacology categories in our Cancer Drug Manual. Use this table as a quick reference for individual oncology drugs, their target molecules and specific target information.

All rights to materials developed for the BC Cancer Oncology Pharmacy Education Program are reserved in favour of BC Cancer Branch, a branch society of the Provincial Health Services Authority. No part of the materials developed for this Program may be used for commercial purposes or gain, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means whether, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Provincial Health Services Authority. The materials developed for this Program were prepared by the BC Cancer Branch Pharmacy Department for education purposes only and their use is subject to the BC Cancer’s Terms of Use. Clinical decision making in a specific context requires the use of independent judgment of a health professional in the context of individual clinical circumstances and remains the responsibility of attending health professionals. Any health professional using the content of these materials to provide treatment for patients will be solely responsible for verifying the information described in the materials as it applies to a specific clinical setting according to acceptable standards of care. Nothing contained in these materials should in any way be construed as being either official or unofficial policy of the BC Cancer Branch or Provincial Health Services Authority.

 

Contributors

 

Authors for the currently available modules are listed here.


Shirin Abadi, BScPharm PharmD MBA

Mandeep K. Bains, BScPharm                           

Jackie Buston, BScPharm 

Lynne Ferrier, BScPharm MBA 

Rhonda Kalyn, BScPharm

Juliana Man, BScPharm 

Tonya Ng, BScPharm MA

Khushminder Rai, BScPharm

Sonia Szombathy, BSP                     

Amber Tew, BSP

 

Reviewers for the currently available modules are listed here.


Educational Review


Susan Aro, BScPharm MEd        

Department Head, Allied Health Programs

Vancouver Community College


‎Expert Review

Jackie Buston, BScPharm

Linda Calwill, BScPharm 

Shawn Cassidy, BScPharm MSc

Megan Darbyshire, BScPharm 

Mário de Lemos, PharmD MSc(Oncol) 

Jaspreet Dhatt, BScPharm

Jeevan Dosanjh, RN BSN

Joan Fabbro, BScPharm

Dennis Jang, BScPharm

Michelle Koberinski, RPhT

Kimberly Kuik, BScPharm 

Tanya Leduc, BScPharm

Michelle Lafreniere, RN BScN

Agnes Y. Y. Lee, MD MSc FRCPC

Crystal Maric, BScPharm MBA

Judith Nyrose, BScPharm

Katherine Pang, BScPharm

Janice Reynolds, BScPharm     

Jillian Stevens, BScPharm                     

Amarjit Uppal, BScPharm

Lisa Wanbon, BScPharm


 

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