As an ACCP member, you’re the first to hear about new programs available from ACCP for specialty recertification. But how much do you really know about new and improved products for recertification in pharmacotherapy and ambulatory care pharmacy? Take the following quiz to find out, and then read on for news about the ACCP Recertification Dashboard: a new recertification planner to help you stay on track as you work toward recertification.
Test Yourself
1. True or false: A Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist can no longer recertify using PSAP alone.
False. The new six-book PSAP series offers 40 hours per year of continuing pharmacy education credit approved by BPS for BCPS recertification. That’s 120 available hours from 2013 through 2015, plus another 120 hours from 2016 through 2018. All together, PSAP will offer 280 hours of recertification credit over a 7-year recertification cycle.
In addition, you will now have 4 months to complete and submit each PSAP module—a full month longer than in previous editions.
2. True or false: Board Certified Ambulatory Care Pharmacists can use PSAP to recertify in ambulatory care pharmacy.
Answer: False. ACCP has just introduced a new home study series developed specifically for recertification in ambulatory care pharmacy: the
Ambulatory Care Self-Assessment Program (ACSAP). The six scheduled releases in the ACSAP series are electronic books (PDFs) with enhanced interactivity. Intra-document links lead you from the table of contents to specific chapter topics; authority links take you to current guidelines, online tools, or agency resources; and hundreds of reference links connect you to PubMed, the Cochrane Database, and other compilers so that you can access the original sources of this information.
ACSAP is available in an e-media package that allows access on phones, tablets, and e-readers. ACSAP will offer a minimum of 20 hours of BCACP recertification credit annually through the release of two electronic books—the first in January, followed by a second in July. Full details on the ACSAP series are available at
www.accp.com/bookstore/acsap.aspx.
3. True or false: The pharmacotherapy prep course can be used for recertification.
Answer: True. Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialists may use the Pharmacotherapy Preparatory Review and Recertification Course up to two times during a 7-year recertification cycle, in nonconsecutive years. The course is available live and in a variety of home study formats. It will provide a minimum of 21 hours of BPS-approved recertification credit annually. This means that a pharmacotherapy specialist could earn at least 42 hours of recertification credit by participating in the review and recertification course twice during his or her 7-year recertification cycle—if the courses are taken in nonconsecutive years.
4. True or false: All the recertification offerings for ambulatory care are released in the spring and summer. If you miss them, you’ll have to wait until next year.
Answer: False. BCACPs can attend the live presentation of From Theory to Practice: Clinical Reasoning Series in Ambulatory Care Pharmacy, offered as a presymposium at ACCP’s Annual Meeting each October. With new content each year, the live program allows BCACPs to earn a minimum of 6 hours of BPS-approved recertification credit in ambulatory care pharmacy every year.
5. True or false: PSAP won’t work on portable electronic devices.
Answer: False. When you purchase the PSAP E-Media Package, you’ll receive the basic version of the product: online printable PDFs that include full text, full-color graphics, and self-assessment questions; hyperlinks to outside resources such as official guidelines; reference links to compilers such as PubMed; and multimedia elements (audio and video). You’ll also receive the full text (without graphics) and self-assessment questions for e-reader devices—phones and tablets. In addition, you will receive both the graphics as separate image files and the PSAP audio companion.
Full information about the PSAP E-Media Package is available at
www.accp.com/bookstore/psap.aspx#new.
Here’s a final bonus question to test your knowledge of BPS recertification requirements generally.
True or false: To make sure you’ve earned enough credits to recertify using continuing pharmacy education, it’s best to complete as many hours as possible early in your recertification cycle.
Answer: False. In the early years of the recertification cycle, BPS limits the number of hours that can be counted toward recertification, although all the required hours may be earned later in the cycle. For pharmacotherapy specialists, that means that no more than 60 hours may be earned before the end of the fourth year of the cycle. For specialists in ambulatory care pharmacy, no more than 50 hours may be earned before the end of the third year of the cycle.
New ACCP Recertification Dashboard to Help Recertificants Stay on Track
If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed with information about available offerings for recertification, and keeping track of your hours earned, help is on the way: the ACCP Recertification Dashboard. ACCP has just released the new online recertification planner to help members who are board certified in oncology, pharmacotherapy, or ambulatory care—the specialties in which ACCP is the provider or co-provider of recertification offerings. The free online planner is designed to help you keep track of hours earned and upcoming offerings available to you, all within the requirements set up by BPS, so that you’re better organized and better prepared for each recertification cycle.
For full information on the ACCP Recertification Dashboard, read the article in the April issue of the ACCP Report. Or check the dashboard directly at http://www.accp.com/myaccount/recertdashboard.aspx.