Recognizing that oncology pharmacy is a subspecialty, the Pharmacy Education Program uses a structured educational framework to support ongoing knowledge development in a variety of oncology topics.

The program curriculum includes modules to develop the core knowledge required to clinically review and assess chemotherapy orders and to safely handle and dispense hazardous drugs, and also modules that focus on evidence-based therapeutic topics for a more advanced level of clinical oncology practice.

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 the risk factors, screening process, diagnostic process, monitoring parameters, treatment modalities and management of malignancies in the following tumour sites: breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate.
10. Describe complications associated with vascular access devices and their management, including thrombosis and venous sclerosis.
11. Describe the pathophysiology of common chemotherapy-associated toxicities and develop a care plan to prevent, minimize and manage these symptoms.
12. Describe the basic clinical evidence to support the general management of the following malignancies: breast, colorectal, lung and prostate.

‎This is a non-accredited program. Supporting documentation is not required by the BC College of Pharmacists to be included in the CE-Plus option for the Professional Development and Assessment Program (PDAP).

Technical requirements

• For BC health authority employees:
• Registration as a Health Organization Employee with the PHSA LearningHub Create an Account [Set up a LearningHub Account]
• For all other registrants:
• Registration as General Public with the PHSA LearningHub - Create an Account [Set up a LearningHub Account]
  
• Minimum System Requirements - refer to LearningHub Signup Instructions (PDF)
  

• LearningHub Help

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

Password-protected websites 

Registration for some healthcare websites is required to access some of the reading materials for this program. These password-protected websites were included because it was felt that including these websites was preferable to the alternatives, which are:

• requiring learners to obtain hard copies of textbooks or journal articles
• charging learners a fee to access modules to offset paying for the rights to include copyright-protected articles in the course
  

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 this 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.