I would like to first off thank the CAPhO Board of Directors for providing me with the Wild Card Travel Grant and making it possible for me to attend the 2018 CAPhO conference in Ottawa. It allowed me to expand my knowledge in oncology pharmacy and the opportunity to network with other Pharmacist and Pharmacy Technicians across Canada. I attended the 2016 conference in Niagara Falls and it urged me to apply for this grant before it was such a great educational experience.
This year’s conference provided a wide range of topics that were directed at both Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians. One session was on “Health Literacy- How Pharmacy Can Help Navigate Health Information for Patients”. I found this session very interesting and helpful. Tamara really put into perspective how to communicate with the patients and to ensure they understand everything being discussed about their health. Another session I found informative was the “Implementing Effective Strategies to Manage New Drug Waste Costs When Complying with the Beyond Use Dating Requirements of the NAPRA Model Standards”. We are currently implementing the NAPRA beyond use dating requirements for single-dose vials at our site. We are also looking into the closed system transfer device.
One topic in particular, “ Concurrent Session- How to clean the Clean Room”, I gathered a lot of information and knowledge from which I was then able to educate my co-workers and other staff members at our site. The presentation was on policies and procedures for cleaning and disinfecting, how to train candidates to use the different cleaning products, garbing, cleaning frequency for housekeeping and pharmacy personnel and the different equipment. It was interesting getting to converse with other technicians and to discuss how they do things different at their facilities.
I look forward to attending more CAPhO conferences in the future and I will continue to encourage more technicians to become members of this great association and attend the conferences.