Jody Ciufo, Katie Hollis, Megan Riordon, Sean Spina, and Ashley WalusTo cite: Ciufo J, Hollis K, Riordon M, Spina S, Walus A. Embracing our future: a revised name for CSHP [commentary]. Can J Hosp Pharm. 2024;77(3):e3679. doi: 10.4212/cjhp.3679
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 webinars, and throughout the pages of this very journal, 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: the Canadian Society of Healthcare-Systems Pharmacy/Société canadienne de pharmacie dans les réseaux de la santé.
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 Commentary was endorsed unanimously by the CSHP Board of Directors at its meeting of June 27, 2024.
© 2024 Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists | Société canadienne des pharmaciens d’hôpitaux
Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, VOLUME 77, NUMBER 3, 2024