Introduction

Continuing education (CE) for pharmacists plays a crucial role in maintaining skills and ensuring industry compliance. However, the current CE systems, including ACPE CE codes, often feel outdated and cumbersome. This is especially true from the provider side for upstart pharmacists looking to innovate or develop new educational initiatives. To ensure broader access and engagement for the new generation of pharmacists, inclusivity and modernization in continuing education are essential. The rigidity of the current system may be stifling creativity and limiting opportunities for real learning.

The Current State of CE Codes

The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) CE codes are central to pharmacy continuing education, serving as identifiers for accredited courses and tracking the CE credits that pharmacists need to maintain their licenses. CE credits are typically obtained through a series of online modules, quizzes, and workshops, which are governed by ACPE guidelines. Examples include “pharmacy law CE codes” or “ACPE number lookup,” which help ensure standardization across educational offerings.

While the system aims to uphold quality and consistency, it often results in a cumbersome and disparate process for education selection. The complex requirements for accreditation and cost aren’t friendly to new providers either. The challenges include understanding the specific codes, ensuring proper tracking, and meeting rigid guidelines that can feel like a barrier rather than a support to lifelong learning. These are obligatory passage points that can be toll-boothed. It’s time to move away from rigidity and support proliferation of new ideas.

The Barriers to Entry for Upstart Pharmacists

For upstart pharmacists who wish to contribute to continuing education, the process of obtaining CE accreditation is often prohibitive. The paperwork involved, the high costs of accreditation, and the complexity of navigating the regulatory landscape can deter smaller entities or individual pharmacists from pursuing their educational initiatives. This not only limits the availability of fresh perspectives in pharmacy education but also stifles innovation.

Pharmacists who want to create courses that reflect the evolving needs of the profession, such as cultural competency, managed care, or new therapeutic areas should have unfettered access to share insights and reach an audience. The cost and administrative burden required to meet ACPE standards may discourage smaller providers, making CE a game largely dominated by established institutions with disposable resources rather than those with fresh and innovative ideas.

The Need for Inclusivity and Modernization

The current CE system limits inclusivity, particularly for pharmacists who come from non-traditional backgrounds or are new to the field. A more inclusive system would encourage a diverse range of voices, including those who focus on emerging areas like managed care, clinical development, and pharmacy data insights. Education should be a platform for growth and innovation, yet the rigidity of the current CE structure often means that only those who can navigate its complexity can participate.

Inclusivity in CE should mean opening doors to learning through unaccredited yet valuable workshops, YouTube tutorials, or peer-led seminars, provided that the competencies being taught are ensured and validated. My own experience during an unaccredited (no ASHP backing) residency program was incredibly enriching, demonstrating that valuable learning can occur outside the bounds of official accreditation. By expanding the sources of CE to include alternative learning opportunities, the field can foster a broader spectrum of educational content that better reflects the diverse needs of pharmacists today.

Ideas for Reforming the CE System

To modernize the CE system and make it more accessible, we need to rethink how accreditation and learning are defined. Here are a few potential solutions:

• Simplified Accreditation Process: An online platform could streamline the CE accreditation process, perhaps with peer-validation, allowing upstart pharmacists to easily apply for and obtain CE approval. This would help reduce the paperwork burden and make the process more transparent. Siloed or paywalled delivery systems are arguably resource-wasting or resource-hoarding.
• Lower Costs for Entry: Reducing costs for CE providers, particularly those who are offering courses on inclusivity and cultural competency, could make CE more accessible and encourage the development of niche educational content.
• Technology Integration: Leveraging technology like AI or blockchain could significantly modernize CE tracking and make the system more user-friendly. The “ACPE monitor,” for example, could be transformed into a decentralized, intuitive platform that allows for easier navigation and tracking of CE credits.
• Educational Profiles: Educational profiles that track competencies based on what continuing education courses were selected during a renewal period. If publicized, this could help connect pharmacists with like-minded, or contrasting views on what is relevant to learn. Educational providers shouldn’t have to perform market research to backfill unmet needs. They should be able to share insights they believe are valuable and let the market decide what’s relevant.

Incorporating non-traditional educational resources like online workshops or tutorials could be valuable, if there is a mechanism to ensure that competencies are verified. There are about 260+ accredited education providers today. Often, the content you’ll find are webinars with quizzes, conferences presentations promoting processes or ideas or a ten-paragraph module followed by a simple quiz with multiple retakes allowed. These mediums bring into question “What constitutes real learning?” Pharmacy education should go beyond rote memorization to foster genuine competency and engagement. And simply showing up isn’t necessarily the level of engagement required to learn.

Tying It Back to Managed Care

Rethinking CE can play a pivotal role in supporting specialized areas like managed care and health data analysis. These areas require unique skill sets that are not always addressed in traditional CE courses. Managed care, in particular, involves the ability to consolidate health data into actionable insights, a competency that could greatly benefit from a more inclusive and modernized approach to CE. I trust that independent of setting or context, pharmacists are generally solving hard problems! I don’t believe that the CE profile of pharmacists today is associated strongly enough with the type of problems faced in practice.

By allowing innovative educators to contribute content without the steep barriers of accreditation, CE could evolve to include more courses focused on emerging areas like data insights and healthcare policy, as well as automation, AI and programming. Modernizing the CE system could thus help pharmacists stay in-line with best practices in fields like managed care, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes and a more dynamic pharmacy profession.

Conclusion

The current continuing education system for pharmacists, while well-intentioned, is restrictive and in need of transformation. Making the system more inclusive and accessible would not only benefit upstart pharmacists but also improve the overall access and diversity of education within the profession. By allowing for non-traditional educational resources and reducing the barriers to entry for CE accreditation, the pharmacy field can become more adaptive, innovative, and inclusive.

What is seen is a structured educational framework designed to facilitate continued learning. What is not seen are the artificial barriers that, if lifted, might unleash innovation and heightened access.

Real learning is not about collecting as many certifications or letters after your name as possible—it’s about genuine competency and the ability to apply knowledge to improve patient care. Think about your favorite professors, teachers, clinicians and colleagues. It’s likely they didn’t learn their most important legacy nuggets from a CE course. We should encourage pharmacists to share their experiences, advocate for a more open CE system, and work together to make pharmacy continuing education more meaningful and impactful.

If you have had experiences with the CE code system that compel you to engage, I invite you to chime in below.