July • August 2003 - Ontario College of Pharmacists

Q&A
QI have heard that all interns are required
to forward their completed Activities to
the College. Is this true?
Yes, effective 2003, all students and interns are required to
submit their completed Activities to the College as part of
their structured training. They will be notified by SPT staff
approximately one month into the rotation. We suggest that
you submit your Activities three weeks prior to the end of
your rotation.
Preceptors should discuss the Activities with the
student/intern and review the final version before it is
submitted. This will reduce re-submissions and expedite the
overall licensing process.
The College conducts in-house random reviews of
completed Activities to ensure the SPT program is fairly
implemented across all SPT sites. Although we do not
review every report in detail, we do look for evidence that
preceptors have provided necessary feedback to their
student/intern and that the final submissions are high
quality. Please refer to the guidelines for completing the
Activities in the SPT manual.
QHave there been any changes in the
assessment process of SPT programs?
Please note that the assessment process for the SPT
programs has changed slightly in 2003. For Canadian/U.S.
SPT Internship, one of the three monthly formal assessments
has been replaced by a TOC or Target Objective
Conference. The TOC is a brief, one-page assessment form
to be completed by the student or intern along with their
preceptor’s feedback that is added during the discussion
with the student/intern. (Similar changes for international
pharmacy graduates will be made in the near future.) These
changes were made in response to preceptors who sought
decreases to the workload and required paperwork.
International Pharmacy
Graduate Program
All sessions are led by an ESL
instructor and a pharmacist teaching
assistant (TA). This co-facilitation
provides participants with a unique
learning opportunity. The pharmacist
TA assists in what participants may say;
addressing specific pharmacist-patient
interactions such as counselling a specific
dosage form. The ESL instructor assists in
how they may say it; addressing specific linguistic
issues such as grammar and phrasing. Moreover,
because of the small group size (10-15 per group) there is an
opportunity for each participant to receive tailored feedback on their language and counselling skills.
Student response has been positive as they are reporting that the ESL course is giving them new confidence in
conducting patient interviews.
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Pharmacy Connection July • August 2003