USask CPE and medSask Update

USask CPE Update

Over the last several months, CPDPP has rebranded to our new name: USask Continuing Pharmacy Education (CPE). While the name change reflects an intention to provide more education opportunities to pharmacy professionals across Canada, USask CPE will continue to create and facilitate quality education for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians here in Saskatchewan. This past year, new courses were created, and old ones were updated to reflect new pharmacist scope of practice changes in Saskatchewan. USask CPE also hosted a variety of webinars and injection training sessions.

Some notable highlights include:

• the COMPASS course update which reflects new guidelines and regulations;
• opioid and antimicrobial stewardship open-access modules available on the medSask website;
• a new Maternal/Parental and Perinatal HIV module (registration coming soon);
• the Trans-Inclusive Healthcare webinar series;
• the Advancing Interprofessional Management of Substance Use Disorder (AIMS-SK) workshops; and,
• a limited podcast series ‘Pharmacy Perspectives: Providing Safer Spaces’.

This upcoming year, USask CPE intends to release more courses focusing on supporting pharmacists with their evolving scope of practice and pharmacy technician-specific education. For more information, check out our website or follow our newsletter to hear about new continuing education opportunities.

medSask Update

medSask has had many changes to our website, resources, and minor ailments over the last 6 months, here are some of the most important summarized for you:

Website

medSask’s website was updated last month to reflect regulatory changes from SCPP. The new “pharmacist prescribing” tab is a one stop shop for Level 1 and Level 2 prescribing. There is also a new page that features all the main prescribing PARs in one spot, including ones previously hosted by SCPP.

Minor Ailments

medSask continues to research and produce guidelines for new minor ailments as they are approved by SCPP. Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy and Recurrent Genital Herpes were added to the list of minor ailments pharmacists can prescribe for in Saskatchewan.

The Tobacco Cessation guideline has been updated and revised; it is now called “Nicotine Cessation”. This change is made to ensure more support can be offered to people using nicotine products generally, not only Tobacco. The guideline includes explaining the role of nicotine pouches as nicotine replacement therapy and how to support patients who use electronic nicotine delivery systems (i.e., vape pens).

New Resources

• Antimicrobial and Opioid Stewardship: under “Level 1” in our pharmacist prescribing tab there are now pages for antimicrobial and opioid stewardship. These pages feature curated resources on assessing appropriateness, patient communication, and opportunities for relevant continuing education. Both pages include links to open-access modules developed by USask CPE to accompany the resources.
• Drug and Vaccine Administration Resources: Two new resources are featured on our Drug and Vaccine Administration Tools page; the AEFI quick tools guide, and the Cold Chain Management reference guide. These tools are valuable for individual reference but are also designed to be printed out and posted in the pharmacy for your team’s reference.
• Drug Shortages (Ozempic Page): at the top of our drug shortages page there is now a link to a dedicated Ozempic shortage page. This page features management options, monitoring/follow-up, and what to do when Ozempic returns. 
• Common Lab Tests Guide: Is a reference page and companion webpage to USask CPE Laboratory Tests for Medication Management Course.

medSask will continue to create new resources and minor ailments in the coming year, but we also send a monthly newsletter that features up to date pharmacy news and resources on the last Tuesday of every month. You can check out links to our previous issues on our website.