Development of a Tool to Evaluate Staff Requests for Funding Support to Attend Conferences

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

External conferences continue to play an integral part in most educational programs for pharmacy staff. Although they are not the only component of such programs, the value of networking, sharing of ideas, and stimulation obtained through attendence at conferences should not be underestimated. However, with decreases in travel budgets — if they exist at all — the absence of travel assistance in most written contracts, and the decreasing availability of travel grants, there is a need to look at funding policies for attending external conferences. 1 Amalgamation into one provincial pharmacy program within the Alberta Cancer Board provided the opportunity for us to compare the existing internal policies of the pharmacy departments of the Tom Baker Cancer Centre and the Cross Cancer Institute and to develop a single consensus framework. The issue of external conference funding was discussed by a team consisting of 5 members from our pharmacy department, representing administration, specialty practice, general practice, pharmacist and technician perspectives. The objective was to formulate one process for a provincial department of pharmacy. The approach of the development team was to ascertain the organizational rules that pertained and to benchmark other colleagues’ practices, since the medical literature on this topic is sparse.1 The final result of this work is shared in this paper.