I want to sincerely thank the CAPhO Awards Committee for selecting me this year as one of the CAPhO Conference Travel Grant winners for the conference in Ottawa. I had previously attended conferences in 2010, 2015 and 2016 but was especially excited for the opportunity to attend this year as a newly Registered Pharmacy Technician.
Over the last couple of years many changes have taken place at the hospital pharmacy where I work. It was great to have the opportunity to hear how other centers across the country are implementing changes in light of our new scope of practice. The “Better Together” theme this year was very appropriate since Pharmacists and Technicians are working more closely together now than ever before, as technicians have a bigger and broader role to play in Pharmacy Practice. The Hot Topics, “Sterile Compounding Supervisor” and “Pharmacy Technicians and Clinical Trials” spoke to how technicians are now in positions that were once only held by Pharmacists.
As the deadline approaches for Sterile Compounding rooms to become fully compliant with the NAPRA standards, it was quite interesting to hear where other centers were in this process and how they are trying to accomplish this goal, knowing the challenges that we all face. It was actually eye opening to know that some centers are just at the beginning stages of this process. The Hot Topic “How to Clean the Clean Room” was very informative and I was quite eager to go back to work and discuss with my supervisors what I had learned.
The topics and discussions were extremely varied, interesting and informative this year. Working as a Drug Access Navigator I interact frequently with patients and their families. The discussions about Cancer Related Fatigue, Health Literacy and the Post Cancer Treatment-The New Normal, were extremely beneficial for me as well as the Wellness Session for Health Care workers which helped us know how to be resilient.
The Satellite Symposiums, Plenaries and concurrent sessions were also very informative and because of very knowledgeable speakers, were all quite interesting. New SC drug formulations, Medical Cannibis, Biosimilars, Managing Drug Waste, were just a few of the topics that I had a chance to attend that have helped broaden my knowledge in Oncology Pharmacy. I also would like to mention that the poster presentations were excellent this year. A lot of time and hard work goes in to presenting these each year and I was very happy for my colleagues Alicia Wall and Rick Abbott whose poster “Single Use Vial Extension using PhaSeal” was chosen as one of the best.
Once again thank you for this wonderful opportunity. I learned so many valuable things about Oncology Pharmacy over the weekend with the added bonus of staying in a beautiful hotel in Gatineau, QC. It was nice getting to see familiar faces and meeting many new ones.
Looking forward to Halifax!