As Project Manager at the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) Canada for more than 10 years, Certina Ho has done much to establish medication safety initiatives in community pharmacy practice. Yet there are still barriers in the reporting of errors, including, to some extent, a “blame and shame” culture. With help from the Wellspring Award, Ho will undertake a one-month study project under the mentorship of Dr. Derek Stewart at Robert Gordan University in Aberdeen, United Kingdom.
Dr. Stewart recently led a large international study on patient/medication safety that used a mixed-method research methodology to explore barriers in reporting, as well as the potential impact of error reporting on professional reputation and career progression. “I will be able to extrapolate his innovative approaches to conduct patient/medication research in Canadian pharmacy practice,” noted Ho in her application. “This type of pharmacy research is very timely, as several Canadian pharmacy regulatory authorities are going forward with mandatory medication incident reporting.”