We Want Your Feedback
Council approved circulating these draft Continuing Competence Program (CCP) Policies for you to review. For reference, you can see our current CCP Policies here.
Please use our feedback form to give us your feedback by December 30, 2022.
We will consider your feedback and, as appropriate, may recommend adjustments to Council.
About the Draft CCP Policies
Our goal for updating the CCP Policies is to keep the current Competence Program requirements while:
- removing outdated information
- making wording clearer
- making program requirements easier to find and understand
- adding information to support the current requirements
This is what we removed and why:
- CCP Quiz requirement – The CCP Quiz was a tool to help dental assistants learn about the CCP when it was new. We no longer use the quiz.
- Jurisprudence Quiz requirement – The Jurisprudence Quiz was a tool to help dental assistants learn about the laws and rules that guide their practice. We replaced the Quiz with other resources.
- Detailed information about Learning Plans, Learning Objectives, Learning Activities, Practice Hours – The Policies include program requirements. The new Competence Program Manual will offer more detailed information to guide dental assistants.
- Audit once every five years – We are changing to auditing at least 5% of dental assistants each year. This helps us connect with and better support each dental assistant we audit to help them get more from their competence activities.
- Late Audit Submission Suspension – A new Conduct Referrals policy replaces this.
- Compliance – Program requirements are in other parts of the CCP Policies. The Remedial Process and Conduct Referrals policies replace this.
This is what we added and why:
- Dental assistants must keep their CCP records for five years – We may audit a dental assistant’s CCP records that are up to five years old. Putting this in policy makes it clear how many years of records dental assistants must have available at any time.
- Results Statements – Our current Policies only touch on results statements in the audit information. By adding this new policy, we make our expectations clear.
- Verification of Learning – Our current Policies only touch on verification of learning in the audit information. By adding this new policy, we make our expectations clear.
- Practice Hours: upload verification annually; acceptable verification; current practice in lieu – By adding this information, we make our expectations clear. Uploading verification each year helps dental assistants avoid missing hours or hard-to-get verification.
- We use the CCP Policies and Competence Manual to assess CCP records – By adding this, dental assistants will know what we use to measure their audit result.
- Audit Extensions – Though audit extensions are not in our current Policies, we have given extensions. By adding this new policy, we make extensions consistent.
- Remedial Process Steps – By adding steps for the remedial process, dental assistants will know what to expect.
- Conduct Referrals – Instead of a fee and suspension for late audit submissions, we will use the remedial process. If a dental assistant’s audit is still incomplete after the remedial process, this new policy defines next steps. By adding this new policy, dental assistants will know what to expect.
- Appeals: timeline and required information – Adding these details makes our expectations clear and sets time limits for steps in an appeal.
- Material Review – We added the Competence Program Manual. The Manual is a new resource and will be part of our review.
Why are we making these changes?
Bill 46, the Health Statutes Amendment Act 2020, is changing the Health Professions Act (HPA) and Dental Assistants Profession Regulation (the Regulation). Those changes affect where we have information about our Competence Program and how we make it available.
High-level Continuing Competence Program requirements will be in our Standards of Practice. Our new CCP Policies support the Standards by helping to define the requirements. We will also have a Competence Program Manual that will give dental assistants more details like examples and how-to information.
While we make the changes for Bill 46, it makes sense to update our CCP Policies. This way, we ensure our CCP Policies are up to date and fit with the HPA, Regulation and our Standards.
Your Opinion Matters
Any changes to the CCP Policies may impact how dental assistants maintain their competence, which they must do to practice. Your input on these draft CCP Policies is important to us. We want to understand your point of view on our proposed changes.
After Council considers feedback from stakeholders, makes any adjustments to the draft and approves the CCP Policies, we will post them on our website. We will also let all dental assistants know by email.