A message to members from the CSHP Board
August 7, 2024
Over the past few years, we have all seen our work environments face incredible strains, including the COVID-19 pandemic and human resource challenges across all healthcare systems. But as the clinical environment has changed, so too have opportunities for professionals like us to play a greater role.
Some provinces have embarked on major reviews of how they deliver healthcare services, including innovations in primary care, “hospital at home”, and long-term care. Others have made legislative changes to expand pharmacists’ scope of practice, allowing greater impacts in patient care, and to place pharmacy technicians under the regulatory authority of provincial colleges.
The Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists (CSHP) has grown to meet those challenges. Welcoming pharmacy technicians as full members in 2022/23 was a major step in making sure our CSHP community represents the breadth of pharmacy practice across our various workplaces, which now extend well beyond hospitals.
Such growth puts us in a better place when advocating for a larger role for pharmacy in healthcare settings, with the aim of achieving better outcomes for patients, and also when advocating for the future of our professions.
A lasting and positive change stemming from the pandemic is the growth in our sense of community and the consequent increase in CSHP members. Being part of this organization—meeting others who are facing the same pressures, looking for similar solutions, and envisioning a better practice—is invaluable. We’re nourished by discussions with peers from coast to coast to coast at our conferences, in our online Pharmacy Specialty Networks, during virtual webinars, and throughout the pages of the Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy.
We move forward by learning from, supporting, and inspiring one another. The strong connections built around CSHP are what make this Society integral to so many of our members, grounding who we are as healthcare professionals. Our community always strives to do more, to be more, and to serve more as we work to advance the role that pharmacy professionals play in patient care.
We have come so far, in fact, that our name no longer fully represents who we are. It’s time for a new name that appropriately reflects the diversity, growth, and vision of our community.
The current name, Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists / Société canadienne des pharmaciens d'hôpitaux, has served us well since our beginnings in 1947; however, over the past two decades at least, the issue of changing our name keeps coming up. We’ve surveyed, debated, and discussed possible names and rationales during those years, but there was no consensus on making a change. In preparing for our next strategic plan, the Board drew from the work of the Vision Task Force, involved Branches in an environmental scan, and deliberated the transformation in practice that is already well on its way. All of these efforts pointed to the need for a change.
As a result, the Board of Directors is recommending that Canadian Society of Healthcare-Systems Pharmacy / Société canadienne de pharmacie dans les réseaux de la santé be adopted as the new name of the Society at the annual general meeting in October 2024.
We must be more inclusive of the people and settings we serve. We are pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and students, and we work in a variety of environments and collaborative healthcare settings, both within and beyond the brick-and-mortar walls of hospitals, including primary care, ambulatory care, long-term care, governments, academia, industry, and not-for-profit organizations such as regulatory bodies and advocacy groups.
Just as we wouldn’t continue patients on medications that no longer serve their goals of care, we shouldn’t keep a name that reflects who we were, but no longer are. It’s time to retire the old name and replace it with something that reflects the goals of who we are becoming.
Change is difficult, but done for the right reasons, it brings a wealth of opportunities. This new name addresses the future of our profession with authority, inclusivity, innovation, and inspiration. All members of the Society and the profession are invited to embrace our best selves as the Canadian Society of Healthcare-Systems Pharmacy / Société canadienne de pharmacie dans les réseaux de la santé!
This piece was endorsed unanimously by the CSHP Board of Directors at its meeting of June 27, 2024.
It will appear in the September 2024 Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy as The Board Commentary.
The authors are members of the CSHP Executive: Jody Ciufo, CEO; Katie Hollis, President Elect; Megan Riordon, Treasurer; Sean Spina, Past President; and Ashley Walus, President.
Briefing note to members
An explanation of the Resolution to change the name to Canadian Society of Healthcare-Systems Pharmacy / Société canadienne de pharmacie dans les réseaux de la santé
August 7, 2024
Why change the name?
As part of its 2024-2028 Strategic Plan, the CSHP Board of Directors voted to recommend that the Society change its name to better reflect who our members are (pharmacists and pharmacy technicians) and the places in which they work (hospitals, primary care, ambulatory care, long-term care, etc). This name change will be presented at the October 2024 Annual General Meeting for a vote by the membership.
Why change the name now?
For over two decades, the issue of changing the name has resurfaced, but recent changes in legislation and the nature of pharmacy practice brought the need to the forefront once again. Across Canada, pharmacists’ scopes of practice have expanded, and pharmacy technicians are mostly under the regulatory authority of provincial colleges. Further, innovations in healthcare delivery services now see more primary care, ambulatory clinics, virtual, and remote care. CSHP’s advocacy efforts over the last several years have been focused on healthcare-system level issues, including drug shortages, proposed changes to federal legislation impacting the delivery of healthcare within Canada, and environmental sustainability. The current name no longer reflects who we are and who we are becoming. Our identity and name were also included in our 2020 – 2023 strategic plan; adding pharmacy technicians as full members of the Society was the first step to that change, and now it is time to complete the work with the name change.
How was the name determined?
To develop the next strategic plan, the Board undertook a six-month planning process that included an environmental scan, review of previous member surveys, and structured input from Board members and Branch executives. Further outreach was conducted at the PPC 2024 through live response boards, recorded broadcasts, and interactive channels. Through two facilitated workshops, the Board crafted and debated the elements that needed to be included. See “What’s in a name?” below for a full discussion. The important decision, taken unanimously, was to lead the transformation of our profession to where it can and will be in the delivery of pharmacy services within our healthcare systems.
What is the new French name?
The Board recommends Société canadienne de pharmacie dans les réseaux de la santé, abbreviated as SCPRS. Extensive consultation was conducted with an expert panel of francophone members including past and present board members, award winners, academics, fellows, affiliated board and committee members and A.P.E.S. senior leadership all weighing in. While “Société canadienne de pharmacie des systèmes de santé (SCPSS)” is a more direct translation of the new English name, the use of “dans les réseaux de la santé” connotes the human interactions of people providing or receiving care within the health infrastructure and facilities. There is consensus that this adaption of the “Canadian Society of Healthcare-Systems Pharmacy” resonates with francophone audiences in the same way as the English name is designed to do.
Will the abbreviations and logo change?
The English abbreviation will remain CSHP, thanks to the hyphenation of “Healthcare-Systems” in the new name. For the French name, the abbreviation will change from SCPH to SCPRS. The stylized, multicolour mortar and pestle will not change, although the wordmark will be adapted.
What is the timeline?
- Step 1: At the CSHP June 27 board meeting, the CSHP Board passed the English name change to “Canadian Society of Healthcare-Systems Pharmacy” motion.
- Step 2: On July 26, the Board voted electronically on the French name change to: Société canadienne de pharmacie dans les réseaux de la santé.
- Step 3: In accordance with CSHP By-Laws, resolutions to change the name of the Society in English and French to Canadian Society of Healthcare-Systems Pharmacy / Société canadienne de pharmacie dans les réseaux de la santé and to amend the By-law with the new name was distributed on August 7, 2024, 60 days in advance of the AGM. View special resolutions here.
- Step 4: The name change resolution will be presented officially to members at the AGM on October 6, 2024 for voting and approval.
- Step 5: After the new name is approved by members at the AGM, communications and branding updates will be rolled out immediately.
What’s in a name?
Each term in the new name was selected deliberately.
- Pharmacy/pharmacie – replaces Pharmacists/pharmaciens to encompass the full range of members: pharmacists, pharmacy graduates, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacy technician graduates, not limited to those who are licensed and/or registered.
- Healthcare-Systems / réseaux de la santé – replaces Hospital/hôpitaux to:
- include our members working in places beyond hospitals including primary care clinics, ambulatory care clinics, long-term care homes, academia, governments, etc.
- recognize the interconnectedness of all the organizations, people, and actions which are integral to individuals’ outcomes in Canada. The term “systems”, as opposed to
“hospitals”, references the complexity of determinants ranging from modes of delivery, to political structures, to data systems, to drug development. None works in isolation, nor do they function as a coherent whole. The use of the plural “systems/ réseaux” signals at the very least the regulatory structure of healthcare in Canada and, in its fullest expression, the complexity of the ecosystem that defines it.
- emphasize the systemic nature of CSHP’s advocacy to make lasting, structural change so that patients receive the best pharmacy care where, when, and how they need it.
- Healthcare – selected because the term healthcare is more familiar to Canadians when talking about health services historically, as opposed to the wording found in ASHP’s Health-System Pharmacy. Beyond distinguishing us from our US counterpart, the choice of healthcare intentionally puts care at our centre.