www.nspharmacy.ca, the official website of the Nova Scotia Pharmacy Regulator (NSPR), provides information about the pharmacy regulator, pharmacist and pharmacy technician registration, pharmacy licensure, and pharmacy practice in our province.

The information on this site is intended as a resource to pharmacy professionals and future pharmacy professionals, and to the public.

Public interpretation of health information on this site should not be substituted for the advice of a healthcare professional. For specific health matters, visitors to this site are encouraged to consult their pharmacist or other appropriate healthcare provider.

Occasionally, alternate websites are referenced on this site. This does not imply an endorsement by NSPR. The Nova Scotia Pharmacy Regulator does not endorse specific organizations, products, or therapies.

Nova Scotia Pharmacy Regulator is located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People, and we acknowledge them as the past, present, and future caretakers of this land.

We respect and honour the Peace and Friendship Treaties that were signed in this territory, setting the terms of coexistence between settlers and the Mi’kmaq people. These Treaties remain in place today.

We recognize our responsibility to uphold the Treaties in the spirit of Reconciliation and collaboration. We acknowledge the harms that have created and continue to create health inequities for Mi’kmaq People, and we commit to moving forward in partnership.

We are all Treaty People.

We recognize the histories, legacies and contributions of African Nova Scotians, a distinct people with connections to the original 52 land-based Black communities. African Nova Scotians have been a key part of enriching the culture and history of Mi’kma’ki for more than 400 years.

Mi’kma’ki includes all of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, part of New Brunswick, the Gaspé region of Quebec, part of Maine, and southwestern Newfoundland.

StaffWISE

Staffing and Workload Initiative for Safety and Effectiveness (StaffWISE) is a new regulatory program designed to ensure that every community pharmacy in Nova Scotia has the staffing levels needed to meet its patient care needs

Developing, monitoring, and updating a staffing plan is essential for pharmacies to fulfill their responsibility to provide safe care.

For questions and inquiries, please email staffwise@nspharmacy.ca.

Pharmacy Staffing Level Policy

Pharmacy Staffing Level Policy

StaffWISE Scorecard and Improvement Resources

Sample Scorecard

Scorecard User Guide

Staffing Score and Improvement Actions Guidance

Staffing Level Improvement Plan Template

StaffWISE FAQs

General Information

StaffWISE stands for Staffing and Workload Initiative for Safety and Effectiveness. It is a regulatory program to ensure every community pharmacy in Nova Scotia has enough staff for the volume of patient care need they are meeting.

Regulations have required that pharmacies have sufficient staffing since 2001. In recent years, the NSPR identified a growing imbalance between the workload demanded of pharmacy teams and the human resources available to complete it.

Research conducted in Nova Scotia shows that when workload exceeds available staff, it leads to practitioner dissatisfaction and increased patient safety risk.

Yes. The StaffWISE program has established that staffing levels are a fundamental quality indicator. Just as a pharmacy must have the right equipment to operate safely, it must have enough human resources to lessen the chance of errors and ensure public safety.

StaffWISE Staffing Score

The Staffing Score is a new, evidence-based regulatory metric of the adequacy of staffing for each pharmacy in Nova Scotia. It compares the human resources a pharmacy has against the professional workload it undertakes.

Yes. The model accounts for the time required to deliver over 40 distinct clinical activities, such as prescribing and medication reviews.

No. Your StaffWISE Scorecard only includes data from the dispensary operations. No CPPCC staffing or workload data have been included.

No. Only dispensing and non-dispensing professional activities collected through DIS and Pharmacare data are included. General operational tasks, such as unplanned interruptions, are accounted for through a Human Factors Allowance.

No. Only dispensing and non-dispensing professional activities collected through DIS and Pharmacare data are included.

Yes. If a pharmacy utilizes automation technology (e.g., robotics, pill counters) or centralized prescription processing (central fill), the model adjusts the workload calculation to reflect the efficiencies realized.  

Time is calculated for dispensing and non-dispensing professional activities using a panel of pharmacists and a validated methodology to produce resource-based relative values.

The StaffWISE models adjusts the time calculations for each pharmacy for several factors, including complexity of prescriptions. Additionally, if a pharmacy uses automation technology or centralized prescription processing, the workload score for these activities is reduced to reflect the time these tools save. It also accounts for the fact that refills typically take less time than new prescriptions.

To ensure individual and system resilience, the StaffWISE model incorporates a Human Factors Allowance. StaffWISE utilizes the International Labour Organization’s PF&D (Personal, Fatigue, and Delay) framework to convert Submitted Labour Time into Safe Labour Time. This adjusts for human and system needs and limitations (e.g., bathroom breaks, cognitive rest, distractions, interruptions).

StaffWISE data collection is achieved in two ways:

  • Data regarding staffing and use of automation technology/centralized prescription processing is collected annually from pharmacy mangers through the pharmacy’s licence renewal application. Managers are also responsible for updating their pharmacy’s data throughout the year if there are significant changes to staffing.
  • Data regarding all dispensing and non-dispensing professional activities for every pharmacy is collected directly from the Nova Scotia Drug Information System (DIS) and Pharmacare databases.

Yes. The NSPR is providing a StaffWISE Scorecard to every pharmacy. This tool allows owners and managers to:

  • compare their metrics against provincial averages.
  • view their current Staffing Score and their pharmacy’s metrics used to calculate it; and

The Staffing Score was developed by industrial engineers, PhD researchers, and subject matter experts and validated with Nova Scotia pharmacies during an initial cohort launch in 2025.

Implementation and Oversight

The Pharmacy Staffing Level Policy requires pharmacy owners and managers to establish a staffing plan that can reasonably be expected to achieve a Staffing Score of one (1) or higher. A score of 1 means the pharmacy’s available staffing hours exactly match the measured workload demand.

Pharmacy owners and pharmacy managers share the primary responsibility. They must work together to establish, implement, and monitor the plan to ensure compliance with legislated requirements.

Yes. All pharmacy staff have a responsibility to provide feedback on the adequacy of staffing, regardless of the pharmacy’s Staffing Score. The policy also explicitly requires owners and managers to:

  • establish a process for staff to provide suggestions or raise concerns about staffing levels without fear of repercussion.
  • involve the pharmacy staff team in establishing and monitoring the staffing plan; and

Based on your Staffing Score, you may be required to develop a written Staffing level Improvement Plan. Use the Staffing Level Improvement Plan Template to document how you will make and monitor improvements. This must be made available to the NSPR upon request, including at the time of inspection.

The Pharmacy Staffing Level Policy requires owners and managers to create a plan that can reasonably be expected to achieve improvement in your Staffing Score, including taking reasonable steps to action that plan.

Reasonable steps could include (but are not limited to) providing evidence of active and meaningful recruitment efforts. Your pharmacy could also consider other actions that will improve your score, including increased use of automation or central fill or limiting professional services not initiated/requested by the patient (e.g., medication reviews).

Pharmacy owners and managers are encouraged to review the Staffing Score and Improvement Actions Guidance document.

This is a committee appointed by the Registrar to oversee compliance with the Pharmacy Staffing Level Policy. If your pharmacy is identified as having a staffing risk, you may be required to submit your staffing plan to this committee, reach an agreement on how you will improve your score, and report to the committee on your progress in implementing the plan and improving your score.

Workload data regarding dispensing and clinical activities is collected directly from the Nova Scotia Drug Information System (DIS) and Pharmacare databases. Information regarding your specific staffing levels and use of technology is collected annually during the pharmacy licence renewal application. However, managers must also update this data throughout the year if there are significant changes to staffing.

Failure to meet the obligations of the policy—such as failing to maintain and actively implement an effective plan, falsifying data, or ignoring committee direction—will result in a referral to the NSPR’s professional conduct process.

Accountability will be assessed based on the degree of control the individual (owner, manager, regulated pharmacy team member) has over the area of noncompliance. Because owners and managers share the duty to establish, implement, and monitor the staffing plan, both may be held responsible for ensuring the pharmacy meets legislated requirements.

StaffWISE Publications