Behind The Scenes of Recertification, with ACCP and ASHP

Read the episode transcript here:

0:01
Ellie: The Board of Pharmacy Specialties works closely with collaborating organizations to ensure that prospective and current board-certified pharmacists have access to valuable educational material related to their specialty certification. Sometimes it can be confusing to understand the different roles of BPS and educational or membership organizations, especially when we’re working so closely together. 

0:24
Ellie: Once a pharmacist earns board certification, 2 pathways are available to maintain the credential: examination or professional development. The professional development option can include a combination of assessed continuing pharmacy education through BPS approved providers and self-reported continuing professional development (CPD) activities for certifications that are in the updated CPD-recertification framework. CPD activities, like serving on a committee or publishing research, could also come from board-certified pharmacist involvement with organizations that serve as recertification providers. 

1:00
Ellie: Professional development program providers, sometimes called recertification providers, play an important role in providing educational programming as part of the recertification framework. Their work, whether done by a single organization or in collaboration between multiple organizations, helps to ensure board-certified pharmacists maintain and enhance their professional competency throughout their certification cycle. 

1:24
Ellie: BPS and its subject matter experts are tasked with establishing the exam content outline to define the scope and competencies associated with a certification program, which then in turn offers recertification providers with a guideline for the content that pharmacists must stay up to date with. Recertification providers may also independently develop preparatory courses or materials for examinees. 

1:47
Ellie: On this episode, we’ll dive into BPS’s relationship with BPS approved professional development programs for the recertification of board-certified pharmacists. 

1:57
Ellie: Various organizations are approved to offer recertification activities for BPS certification programs including specialty specific organizations like Pediatric Pharmacy Association, Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists, American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists and the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists. In addition to broader organizations like the American Pharmacists Association, American College of Clinical Pharmacy and American Society of Health System Pharmacists. Purdue University is also an approved program. 

2:29
Ellie: Today, we are discussing the role of two of these organizations, ACCP and AS HP, as it relates to board certification. Today I’m joined by Joanna Gillette, Director of Professional Development and Marketing from the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and with Kristi Hofer, Senior Director, Board Certification programs at the American Society of Health System Pharmacists. 

2:50
Ellie: Welcome, Joanna and Kristi! 

2:52
Joanna: Thanks so much for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here. 

2:55
Kristi: Absolutely. Thanks, Ellie. 

2:57
Ellie: To start us off, give our listeners a little bit of background on what the professional development program providers do in the context of pharmacist board certification. 

3:08
Joanna: As providers, we design educational activities that allow board-certified pharmacists to earn credit toward recertification in their chosen specialty. And then, as Ellie said in her introduction, we also provide materials to help learners study to pass a specialty certification exam. 

3:25
Joanna: So, providers start with a proposal to BPS for a 7-year professional development plan; we call it a PDP. So, if you hear that throughout the episode, that’s what we’re talking about. That plan details the recertification activities that we plan to offer during the seven year period. BPS sets guidelines for the providers to follow. For example, we have to offer at least 100 hours of recertification credit over 7 years, and our plan has to cover the full content outline for the specialty. The providers have a lot of latitude in how they accomplish that. 

3:58
Joanna: So, BPS approves our plan and makes us official providers, and then we put our plan into action. We offer activities at a discount to members, but of course, they’re open to anyone. 

4:12
Kristi: Another thing that our organizations do is work with the expert faculty to develop content and assessments for each activity. 

4:21
Kristi: We determine the specific release and expiration dates and requirements for each activity, and of course, those are within the parameters set by BPS. 

4:33
Kristi: We track participation and assessments and when you earn credit, we report it to BPS directly from our learning management systems. 

4:44
Ellie: Thanks for those answers, Kristi and Joanna, I’m glad you started to touch on some of the similarities and differences between education that pharmacists do to recertify their credential and perhaps education that they’re doing for licensure renewal. 

4:59
Ellie: I think that’s a question we often get is, ‘how is this any different than what I’m doing for licensure renewal?’ And I think it’s important to highlight that both are ACPE-accredited education that pharmacists do for recertification and for licensure renewal. But there is a separate set of guidelines or policies that BPS provides approved programs to follow above and beyond or in addition to ACPE standards as well. And then as you described, have to cover that exam content outline and a kind of a curricular approach through the PDP and a little bit of feedback is incorporated into that process as well. 

5:35
Ellie: So, thanks for your answers. 

5:37
Joanna: One thing that might be different between recertification programming and general CE. Usually in general CE you might have some activities that are knowledge based and some activities that are application based. And so, knowledge would be, you know, recalling information that was presented in the activity. Whereas for an application-based activity, you’re expected to really understand, internalize that information, and be able to apply it to a scenario. And all of our recertification programming is always application based. 

6:08
Ellie: Kind of what we’re getting at too is that post activity assessment that demonstrates mastery of the competency and mastery of being able to apply the knowledge like you mentioned is kind of another component as well. 

6:19
Ellie: So, we’ve talked a lot about how our work intersects with the work of certifying agencies like BPS and membership or educational organizations. How has this collaboration evolved over time? BPS is getting ready to celebrate our 50th birthday in 2026, and both of your organizations have been involved in board certification for the majority of that history. So, talk about how you’ve seen this collaboration evolve over the past several decades. 

6:49
Joanna: As you said, we’ve been collaborating for a long time. ACCP’s organizational vision includes advancing clinical pharmacist roles and responsibilities to optimize pharmacotherapy in the prevention and treatment of diseases. And so, as you might imagine, board certification is a big part of that. 

7:07
Joanna: One key indicator of how we’re progressing toward that vision is that ACCP members who do direct patient care will have completed residency training (or now we’ll say an equivalent experience) and that they’ll be board-certified. We feel like this reflects the preparation and credentials necessary to practice in person-centered team-based settings. So ACCP has supported BPS from the beginning. We’ve supported them in the formation of pharmacy specialties since 1988 when we were collaborating on the petition for pharmacotherapy as a specialty and ASHP was also on that petition and ACCP has provided a BPS approved plan for the recertification of pharmacotherapy specialists since 1995. 

7:53
Joanna: Throughout all that time, we’ve collaborated on new petitions and support specialties where we feel like our members have a demonstrated expertise. 

8:03
Kristi: Like Joanna said, our organizations prioritize education for our members. 

8:09
Kristi: ASHP’s vision is that medication use will be optimal, safe and effective for all people all of the time, and that correlates perfectly with board certification. We’ve been partners for years, starting with oncology, but as the number of specialties has continued to grow, it has made more and more sense for ASHP and ACCP to collaborate on these specialties and we work closely with BPS to ensure that we are meeting those education needs. 

8:44
Joanna: Absolutely. It’s interesting, both organizations, you know, we’re talking about working within the recertification framework, but both organizations collaborate with BPS even before a new specialty comes online. So, we might be leading the charge or collaborating with a large list of organizations to petition for new specialties when we see a need. And pain management is a recent example of that where we were both involved in that petition as well. And I think we’re both involved in the petition for pharmacogenomics. 

9:11
Joanna: So that’s kind of ongoing collaboration that we have, even before we get to the point where we’re ready to begin thinking about offering recertification activities. We also continue with collaboration on an annual basis when we submit our detailed annual reports to BPS, which are reviewed by the Specialty Council, and provide feedback. So that gives us an opportunity to share how things are going and share feedback. You know, we share the feedback that we get from our learners, as well. So, we can collaborate together on ideas for continuous improvement. 

9:44
Joanna: So that’s a really helpful process, its sort of formalized, but it gives us an opportunity for back and forth so that we can help maintain that improvement across year over year. 

9:55
Kristi: Another area that we work with BPS on is responding to learners’ questions. So, if you run into a question where something is not showing up in your BPS account, perhaps  your BPS number is not already entered, maybe you forgot to click ‘claim credit’ and we can look through those issues on our side. Or if it happens to be a different type of question, we can refer you to BPS. 

10:36
Ellie: I’m really glad the theme of this answer kind of centered around collaboration both between your respective organizations and BPS as well, because that’s one of the things I think excites me the most about board certification is that it’s an area where we see the profession kind of come together. We see organizations collaborating. We see pharmacists who are subject matter experts getting involved. 

11:00
Ellie: And it’s something that makes me really proud of our profession that it’s something that unites us rather than fragments us or separates us. 

11:08
Ellie: We’ve talked a lot about the growth as well. It’s been fun to see how BPS has grown, of course, from our first 3 early specialties, nuclear, nutrition support and pharmacotherapy, now to 15, with some of the newer ones being solid organ transplant, emergency medicine and pain management pharmacy. 

11:27
Ellie: And so, I have to imagine that as the number of specialties has grown and as the number of active certifications has grown, the way that your organizations do recertification programming and other educational materials has probably grown and evolved over time. So, are you able to talk about the evolution of educational offerings? 

11:48
Kristi: As you highlighted, part of that evolution is the growth of specialties. We certainly want to be able to provide the education needed for pharmacists who are specialized in many different areas. And so that’s driven a lot of our growth. 

12:04
Kristi: It also means we’ve had to adjust the number of credit hours we provide for each specialty to better meet the needs of more and more specialties. When we can, we try to offer multi-specialty activities. So, for example, if you’re board-certified in both ambulatory care and geriatrics, we have activities that meet the exam content outlines for both of those, and you are able to earn credit at the same time with the same activity. 

12:33
Kristi: Another thing that has happened over time is BPS parameters have changed, and we’ve adapted those programs and services to comply. For example, early on assessments had a 6-month expiration date, now they have a 12-month expiration date. So, once you’ve started your learning, you have 12 months in which to complete that assessment and earn your recertification credit. We’ve also added remediation opportunities in the last few years at the behest of BPS so that we’re ensuring that not only are you earning the credit, but you’re really learning the information so you can provide that knowledge to the care of your patients. 

13:16
Joanna: Yeah. And as BPS makes adjustments, you know, we end up getting a lot of learner questions the same way that BPS does. So, whenever those questions arise, we do our best to collaborate and, you know, answer what we can, and send you back to BPS and we need to send you back to BPS. And, you know, I know sometimes that can seem like a bit of a back-and-forth, ‘who’s going to answer this question.’ 

13:36
Joanna: But I hope learners are patient with us and understand that we really are working toward resolution in your best interest in getting the right answer from the right person when it’s called for. 

13:48
Ellie: We’ve talked a little bit about some of the activities that help to make these programs function and some of the more operational aspects. So, I’m curious, what are some of the daily, monthly, or annual responsibilities or priorities of your organization as it relates to board certification in a bit more depth? 

14:02
Kristi: Content development for both exam preparation and recertification occurs on an annual basis. As a matter of fact, we have new products releasing every month. Another thing that we’re doing routinely with our content development experts is monitoring what is new and emerging in our different areas of pharmacy that we should be sure to educate our pharmacy specialists on so they can keep their credentials as current as possible. 

14:34 

Joanna: Absolutely. So, as content expires for recertification credit, we also conduct a quality check process and analysis of the activities to see, just to make sure there weren’t any problems with the administration and to see how our assessments did. 

14:52
Joanna: Most of our programs have brand new assessments every time. So, you know, we’re not necessarily looking to refine that exact assessment, but we are looking for more overarching things that we can be improving on. And of course, if there is any kind of error, we’re looking for that as well. 

15:10
Joanna: It’s very rare that we would have an adjustment after an activity closes. But sometimes, you know, we’re all human, and errors do occur. So, if that happens, then that’s part of kind of closing out the activity. For example, if we had an error, we might end up eliminating that question and then readjusting to see if there are additional participants who might pass the assessment based on that change. So that’s part of the process after we’ve actually closed an activity. 

15:35
Joanna: Of course, I mentioned our annual reporting to BPS earlier and even more than sort of a daily, monthly, annually, every seven years. Then we’re back on that recertification cycle process where we’re determining what our new plan for recertification might be and presenting a new proposal to BPS. So, there’s really recertification activity going on at all times for both organizations. We are steeped in it every single day. 

16:03 

Ellie: I appreciate that commitment to quality you touched on both in the sense of receptivity to learner feedback and specialty council feedback through that annual report process, but also the eye to quality as far as monitoring activities to make sure content is appropriate and up to date and to make sure that the assessment is appropriate and up to date. And I think all of those things are what makes the activities such high caliber and such high quality and what makes them so greatly appreciated by board-certified pharmacists. 

16:34
Ellie: When we’re asking board-certified pharmacists why they maintain their credential, a lot of them will say, well, it allows me to stay up to date. It challenges me to stay up to date. And so, I think that really highlights all of the work that your organizations put in. 

16:49 

Ellie: It is truly felt by board-certified pharmacists and demonstrated in the care they provide patients. 

16:55
Joanna: I think it’s, you know, sometimes when you’re down to the wire trying to get your recertification activity credit in, you might be a little bit frustrated by how challenging things are. But we really are committed to making sure that the materials are high quality and that they do require you to demonstrate an expertise. We’re not just passing people through, and we feel like that contributes to, you know, improved patient care outcomes. If you’re able to operate at the top of your license because you’re staying up to date and really learning something from your recertification material, you’re not just checking a box. 

17:32
Ellie: So, talk a little bit more about the process for actually designing the content. You talked about engaging subject matter experts. Talk a little bit more about the different steps that happen behind the scenes that board-certified pharmacists might not be aware of. 

17:49
Kristi: We’re committed to strong educational design, so we follow continuing education principles, identifying practice gaps, looking at needs assessment, appropriate educational formats for different types of information, and then looking at developing the learning objectives, goals of the activities. What evaluation instruments will be used and what outcomes are we measuring? 

18:16
Kristi: We recruit the quality faculty to oversee the course development and deliver those activities, and we work with those faculty to ensure that the content is aligning with the BPS exam domains. Content and the assessments undergo peer review, copy editing, and staff review to ensure that we are adhering to ACPE guidelines for continuing pharmacy education. Also, depending on the type of activity, we have different ways of field testing the materials to determine the appropriate number of credit hours to assign to that activity. 

18:58
Kristi: We prospectively set pass points through standard setting processes that involve a panel of board-certified pharmacists. And after an activity closes, we analyze those results and review all the evaluation feedback. So, we have a continuous feedback loop going on here. And as you may have noticed, talking about pass point setting field testing, this process requires a lot of volunteers. So, we’re grateful for those contributions. 

19:30
Kristi: And then keep in mind, if you’re interested in volunteering for this, this is a great way for you to earn your CPD hours by contributing as a volunteer in the development of these activities. 

19:42
Ellie: I’m really glad you touched on how ASHP and of course, ACCP as well follows some of those processes and best practices. It reflects the same processes we use at BPS to create our examination and to set a passing standard for our examination and then to again monitor performance kind of on the back end to make adjustments when it’s needed. So, I appreciate that overview. 

20:08
Joanna: One of the reasons ACCP and ASHP are such great partners in collaborating is that independently we have very similar goals and ideas and processes for how we develop these activities. So, everything that Kristi said is true of things that we develop on both sides of the collaboration and we just kind of naturally have similar philosophies. So, it works well for us. 

20:32
Ellie: As we celebrate the past 50 years of board certification and we start to look forward to the next couple of decades of board certification, how do your organizations envision programming evolving as this next generation of board-certified pharmacists earns their credentials? 

20:47
Ellie: I think some of our seasoned pharmacists think about recertification and the first thing that they think about are the PSAPs (pharmacotherapy self-assessment program), because that was kind of the first thing that was maybe available. So, talk a little bit about where you see education going in each of your organizations. 

21:03
Kristi: You’re right, Ellie, both ASHP and ACCP have experts in education and technology. And so, they keep their pulse on what is the latest method and way of delivering this education and incorporate those into activities, keeping an eye out for new and emerging ways that we’ll deliver this education in the coming years. 

21:31
Joanna: Yeah, it’s interesting, you mentioned PSAPs, and we’ve tried various things over the years to sort of change with the times and enhance programming. For years and years, PSAP was strictly paper based and now it’s available online, but it’s still mostly reader based. So, you read an activity and then you complete the assessment for that activity. 

21:53
Joanna: We’ve experimented with different types of programs that we offer in PSAP. So, there were interactive cases that some people really, really hated and a few people really liked. So, we tried to evolve those, and we still feel like a case-based format where you sort of work through a case to learn what you need to learn is a is a good format, but maybe we needed to tweak some things to make that better. So, we made sure that all of the content was now available in the same way that article content is. People seem to like that. 

22:24
Joanna: So sometimes there’s resistance to change, but we do our best to try to evolve with the times and create some opportunities so that not everything is the same format. And that’s why we have different types of activities as well. And of course, now that CPD hours can be used too, we’re encouraging people to be involved in our organization to earn those hours. So, we can be involved in other ways in your recertification pathways, not all of it just by completing a PSAP or some other activity. You can be involved on committees that have nothing to do with recertification, and that committee service can count for some professional development hours. 

23:07
Ellie: Since we’re on the topic of continuing professional development, one of the activities that pharmacists can self-report in that category is conducting or publishing research. So, Joanna, do you want to give a little plug for what’s to come in 2026? 

23:22
Joanna: Yeah, absolutely. We have the Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, JACCP, has a special issue coming out next year that’s titled, “The Value of Board Certification, Credentialing, and Privileging to Advance Pharmacy Practice.” So that call for papers is out now, and we’ll have the link to that in the podcast description. So, we hope this will generate some additional scholarship around the topic. 

23:48
Joanna: It’s something we’re really committed to, and a lot of our members have been active in contributing to scholarships related to certification and the value of credentialing. And so hopefully we’ll add to that body of work, and that helps continue to make the case for board certification and other credentialing. 

24:06
Ellie: Well, this has been a wonderful conversation. As we start to wrap up, one last question. What are you most excited about for the future of either board certification or continuing education professional development or the profession more generally? What excites you about the future? 

24:24
Kristi: Ellie, I’d say I’m really excited about the fact that there are more and more opportunities for pharmacy and for those pharmacists to provide patient care. Being recognized as providers. And something that board certification really contributes to that is providing a method for credentialing of these pharmacists so that they can be recognized for the knowledge that they have. We’ll see what the future brings. 

24:51
Joanna: Yeah, we’re excited too about emerging specialties and, and what is coming next and making sure that we can continue to provide opportunities for pharmacists who work in all different areas and making sure that they can, as you say, demonstrate that they have a credential that really proves their readiness to work in a variety of patient care settings. And ultimately, we hope all of this is working toward actually improving patient outcomes. 

25:21
Ellie: I shared the same excitement. I think it’s fun to think about the fact that as BPS was growing up, if you will, a lot of the specialties were focused on areas where the pharmacists were providing patient care, probably direct patient care in most cases. 

25:36
Ellie: And if we put ourselves in the shoes of some of the early leaders within BPS, they probably couldn’t have even imagined pharmacists practicing in some of these newer emerging specialty areas. Now, who knew that we would be considering specialties like veterinary pharmacy or informatics or pharmacogenomics? And so, it’s exciting to think about how board certification and the newer specialties are reflecting the new places where we’re seeing pharmacist practice that maybe we never would have thought of in years past. And so, I’m excited to see what those specialties that we can’t even think about today might be in the next 10/15/20 years. 

26:13
Ellie: Thank you both for joining us. This has been a wonderful conversation. 

26:16
Kristi: Thank you. 

26:17
Joanna: Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having us. 

26:20
Ellie: We appreciate each of you for joining us on the podcast today to highlight the importance of professional development programs and to distinguish the role of BPS and its partnering organizations in the recertification process. 

26:33
Ellie: Pharmacist with questions about the recertification requirements are encouraged to visit the BPS website at bpsweb.org/recertification-overview. 

26:42
Ellie: Information about how a professional development program is approved to offer recertification offerings can be found at the link in the description below. 

26:52
Ellie: More information about BPS approved professional development programs for each unique specialty can also be found at a link in the description. 

27:00
Ellie: Thanks for joining us today, listeners. We’ll see you next episode.