March 2008 – The Prince Edward Island Pharmacy Act (Bill 10) was amended to recognize the pharmacist as a “prescriber”.  The Act was also amended with a new function for the Pharmacy Board to “prescribe conditions and restrictions on the authority of pharmacists to give prescriptions”.

• Prescribing under conditions – generating a new prescription for a drug without requiring the prior approval of another health professional in emergency situations; to treat certain medical conditions (e.g., contraception, smoking cessation); further to a medical directive or through a collaborative practice agreement or a delegation protocol; to treat/relieve minor ailments; as a follow-up to the receipt of laboratory tests.
• Adapting a prescription – change in dose, dosage regimen or quantity dispensed, completing missing information on a prescription, or making a non-formulary generic substitution.
• Therapeutic substitution – substituting a different drug that will treat the patient’s condition as effectively as that prescribed. This could be due to cost savings, formulary limitations, etc.
• Order and interpret certain lab tests – INR, cholesterol, etc that may assist in adaptation and/or prescribing of certain drugs.
• Collaborative Practice agreement and delegated protocols – a formal working relationship is developed between a pharmacist and a prescriber, where the pharmacist is the prescriber based on a directive from the physician.
• Immunization and drug administration – implement pharmacists’ training/certification program from Dalhousie.