Patient safety and medicines
Safe, evidence-based and accountable prescribing in Canada: assessment, consent, opioids, antimicrobial stewardship, deprescribing, virtual care and responding to a prescribing concern
Authorized prescribers in Canada: physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists and other professionals prescribing within their scope.
Structured learning and a written reflection to show insight after a complaint, an investigation or a college inquiry.
Focused learning on a core standard of practice, with a certificate and reflection for your portfolio.
Prescribing is one of the most common and consequential things a health professional does, and prescribing concerns are among the more frequent reasons practitioners come to a college's attention. This course sets out what safe, evidence-based and accountable prescribing looks like in Canada, where prescribing is a controlled or authorized act performed only within scope, controlled substances are governed federally by the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, and each prescriber's college sets and enforces the standard.
It covers the core concepts in depth: adequate assessment, informed consent, clinical reasoning, polypharmacy and deprescribing, controlled substances and the 2017 Canadian opioid guideline, antimicrobial stewardship with Using Antibiotics Wisely, virtual care, interprofessional collaboration with pharmacists, cultural safety and documentation. It then sets out regulatory expectations and the ethical pressures prescribers face, from patient expectations and uncertainty to conflicts of interest and responding honestly to a prescribing error.
Written for physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners and pharmacists and other authorized prescribers, the course includes five province-specific case studies and dedicated sections on insight, root cause analysis, targeted remediation and demonstrating improvement to a college, followed by ten habits for daily practice. It is educational and does not replace current clinical guidelines or advice on a specific case from your protective association or legal counsel.
9 sections · 67 lessons · 2 hours (estimated) · 10-question final assessment
Final assessment
10scenario-based questions
Certificate of completion
A certificate of completion for your learning portfolio.
The course includes a structured reflective account template: guided prompts to record what you learned, how you will apply it and how the change will show in your practice. It gives you written evidence of insight after a concern, and a ready record for your CPD portfolio.
Write it in your own words and leave out anything that could identify a patient, a colleague or a case. If you have an open complaint or case, talk to your adviser before reflecting on it in writing.
Authorized prescribers in Canada, including physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists and other professionals within their prescribing scope. It suits both routine CPD and professionals responding to a prescribing complaint, audit or college investigation.
Yes. It explains the 2017 Canadian Guideline for Opioids for Chronic Non-Cancer Pain: optimizing non-opioid therapy first, keeping starting doses below 90 mg morphine equivalents per day and, where possible, below 50 mg, careful monitoring, prescription-monitoring programs, and gradual, collaborative tapering rather than abrupt or forced tapering. Controlled substances are also placed within the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Yes, as a core concept, a regulatory expectation and an ethical challenge. The course uses Choosing Wisely Canada's Using Antibiotics Wisely messages, including avoiding antibiotics for viral and self-limiting illness, and covers explanation, safety-netting and delayed-prescription strategies when a patient expects an antibiotic.
Colleges expect the same standard as in person: an assessment sufficient for the medication, identity verification where needed, informed consent, documentation and follow-up. The course explains when to decline or arrange an in-person assessment, and why controlled substances prescribed virtually attract particular scrutiny.
Yes. It covers structured medication review, especially for older adults, and planned, supervised deprescribing using Canadian resources such as the Canadian Deprescribing Network and deprescribing.org, with a long-term care case study.
Sections 6 and 7 cover insight, cognitive bias, root cause analysis, a targeted remediation plan, human factors, system safeguards and how to demonstrate improvement, for example with before-and-after prescribing audits. It does not replace advice from your protective association or counsel, and your college decides what remediation it requires or accepts.
Five illustrative scenarios: antibiotic prescribing under pressure (Ontario), a missed interaction in a virtual appointment (BC), unsafe opioid escalation (Alberta), polypharmacy and a fall in long-term care (Ontario) and a dismissed pharmacist query (Quebec).
About 2 hours, online and self-paced, with knowledge checks, a written reflection and a final assessment of 10 scenario-based questions (80% to pass). It costs CA$95 and you receive a certificate of completion.
Every legal and regulatory point comes from primary sources: provincial and territorial health professions statutes, the regulatory colleges' standards and codes, and federal and provincial privacy law. Anything we cannot confirm is left out.
Lessons, scenarios and assessment questions are written by us for each edition separately, then checked for accuracy, teaching quality and fair assessment before publication.
When a code, standard or law changes, the affected courses are reviewed and updated. Reported errors in legal or regulatory facts are corrected first.
Competence and safety as a systems discipline: clinical reasoning, deterioration, handover, incident learning and a remediation plan colleges can see.
Accurate, timely, objective and secure clinical documentation under Canadian college standards and privacy law, from consent and clinical reasoning to EMR risks, late entries and high-risk situations.
How to build genuine, evidenced remediation after a college concern: choosing activities, setting SMART goals, gathering audit evidence and communicating a plan to your college.
