2023 PAS Awards
The Pharmacy Association of Saskatchewan is proud to celebrate exceptional service in our province, recognizing member pharmacists and others providing exemplary care to their patients and/or outstanding service in the profession. Every year PAS asks members to nominate peers who qualify for these awards. The PAS award nomination process opens in January. PAS members receive an email from PAS at that time including online nomination forms. The successful PAS Award recipients are recognized at the PAS Annual Conference.
2023 Award Nominations
Awards – Online Nomination Forms (please click on award name below to access nomination form)
PAS Life Time Achievement Award Presented annually to a pharmacist who has demonstrated leadership and advancement to the profession of pharmacy
PAS Pharmacist of the Year Recognizes a pharmacist who performs outstanding service and patient care within the profession of pharmacy
PAS New Horizon Award Recognizes a pharmacist who has convocated in the past 5 years and has demonstrated impact and commitment to the pharmacy profession
PAS Award of Merit Recognizes pharmacists, individuals or organizations, who through their active participation have promoted the profession of pharmacy in Saskatchewan
Bowl of Hygeia Presented annually to a pharmacist in each province in Canada and each of the United States to recognize outstanding service in the community
PAS Professional Services Award Presented to a community pharmacy that demonstrates leadership in implementing, promoting and providing professional pharmacy services to patients within the pharmacy or in the community
PAS Patients Choice Award (no deadline to nominate) This award is presented to a pharmacist or pharmacy who has been nominated by a patient or non-pharmacist colleague for going the extra mile to provide high quality care and a great patient experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How can I submit my nomination?
Submissions for the 2023 PAS Awards are now closed.
2. Can I nominate myself?
Yes.
3. Can I nominate more than one person?
Yes, you can nominate as many individuals as you would like. You must submit a nomination package for each individual nominee.
4. Can I nominate a past nominee?
We encourage you to resubmit previous nominees who have not won an award yet. Someone who may not have won in previous years might be eligible to win this year.
5. What is considered a supporting evidence?
The online submission ask specifics questions and for specific supporting evidence for each award. There is also the opportunity to provide optional supporting evidence including letters or documents that illustrate why an individuals an award, for example:
-Letter of support from a health-care professional (such as a fellow pharmacist, physician or nurse).
-Letter of support from a patient.
-Letter of support from a nominator.
-Published documentation of achievement (such as a community paper or medical journal).
6. Who do I contact if I have questions?
If you have questions regarding the awards or nomination process, please contact info@skpharmacists.ca
2023 Award Recipients
Lifetime Achievement Award – Garth Walls.
Garth Walls has made an outstanding contribution to the pharmacy profession and the province of Saskatchewan spanning over four decades. He has served as a pharmacist and then a Pharmacy Manager in the province since 1979. Garth was the driving force in the formation of RBSP (now PAS). He served as Chair and Co-chair for 5 years upon the formation of RBSP. After his tenure as Chair, he served on various committees over a number of years.
We are very proud to award the 2023 PAS Lifetime Achievement Award to Garth Walls.
Pharmacist of the Year Award – Courtney Junop.
Courtney designed Evergreen Medicine Shoppe #421, which opened in 2022. It was the first in Saskatchewan to contain a lab that was certified for Hazardous and Non-Hazardous Sterile Compounding as well as Level C Non-Sterile Compounding.
The pharmacy opened in the middle of the shortage of medications for children’s pain/fever relief, and Courtney found herself compounding litres upon litres of medication.
Courtney works very closely with integrative and functional wellness physicians, along with regular GP’s. She has become an invaluable resource for many physicians who send her their most difficult cases. It is not uncommon for a patient to arrive with a sticky note from a physician with her name on instructed from the physician to talk to her as she will know what to do when no one else has.
Bowl of Hygiea Award – Amy Lamb.
Amy is a pharmacist, Chief Executive Officer Indigenous Pharmacy Professionals of Canada, Director of Northern Health Heritage Health Group, and Chair, YWCA Prince Albert.
She currently practices in Willowgrove Pharmacy Prince Albert, and travels to the pharmacy’s remote Indigenous partner communities, providing in person clinical care, and addressing medication barriers. Her pharmacy supplies medications to three remote indigenous communities, Hatchet Lake Denesuline First Nation, Cumberland House Cree Nation, and Red Earth Cree Nation.
She is working to build and operate a remote satellite pharmacy at Chief Miller Nawakayas Health Center located on Red Earth Cree Nation which will enable equitable access for the residents of the Red Earth Cree Nation and surrounding Indigenous communities.
New Horizons Award – Courtney Mish.
Courtney has taken a leadership role in Pharmasave Kipling. After a short time as a staff pharmacist, she transitioned to the role of Pharmacy Manager and Managing Partner. Courtney’s first priority has always been her patients, ensuring they receive quality, effective and timely access to pharmacy care.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to providing the COVID-19 vaccine, Courtney continued to offer a full menu of pharmacy services. Alongside a team of healthcare professionals, Courtney also participates in “Memory Clinics” focused on assisting dementia patients with their medications.
She is continuously working to expand her knowledge and further her qualifications and is working to become a Certified Diabetes Educator.
Award of Merit – Derek Jorgenson.
In 2019, Derek worked to expand patient care services at the MAC to create the USask Chronic Pain Clinic (formally MAC-iOPS).
He assembled a clinical team consisting of pharmacists, medical social workers, physical therapists, and a part-time chronic pain physician to offer chronic pain management in a unique model. The UCPC team works collaboratively with the patient’s family physician, and other health care allies to support their pain management.
During the COVID-19 pandemic Derek was able to facilitate the provision of virtual care, and eventually hybrid virtual/in-person care to Saskatchewan residents. He was among the pharmacist team members of UCPC who were awarded the 2021-2022 CSHP Excellence in Pharmacy Practice – Patient Care Award.
Recently, Derek has led the creation of an interprofessional patient care program focused on chronic pain, to fill a current void.
Award of Merit – Ryan Bruck.
“Ryan Bruck has led his staff in providing Covid vaccines since the day the vaccine became available. So many individuals have made our profession proud during the pandemic and so many stores have answered the call, but none like Ryan and his team at Kenderdine.
Ryan delivered 2600 Covid vaccines in 2021 and 2600 in 2022. His dedication, coming in early and staying late, fitting people in and doing it all with jokes, smiles and when needed, great empathy, has inspired his team. His staff pharmacist has delivered 2436 vaccines – a total of almost 10,000 vaccines for the store,” Tracy Price.
A third Award of Merit was presented to Clinical Instructors at the University of Saskatchewan.
This group of pharmacists works to percept, mentor and teach students in all aspects of hospital pharmacy. They advocate for student experiences and go out of their way to create a positive learning experience. They act as mentors, teachers and motivators for the pharmacy profession, and develop learning plans, discuss goals and expectations, provide continuous formative and summative assessments, provide guidance, feedback and encourage self-assessment; tools critical for student success and the future pharmacists in Saskatchewan.
They are crucial in the development of our PharmD graduates through the University of Saskatchewan and significantly shape future pharmacists that practice within our province. They promote the profession by empowering our students to be the best they can be.
Professional Services Award was presented to Vital Care Pharmacy.
“Vital Care pharmacy has given the community a place where people with mental health issues are treated with respect and kindness.
They understand the struggles that people with mental health issues face.
They go out of their way to ensure that clients’ needs are met. Clients tell me that they feel comfortable approaching the pharmacy staff with their concerns, as they know that they will be heard.
Vital Care pharmacy maintains rapport with Mental Health professionals, which is beneficial to the clients they serve.
No other pharmacy has specialized in mental health services prior to Vital Care. lt has filled a gap in services,” Carmena Schumann, RPN, Community Mental Health Nurse -Community Recovery Services, Regina Mental Health Clinic.
Click here to see more detail on the 2023 award recipients.
Past Award Recipients
2022 Award Recipients
The following 2022 PAS Award recipients were recognized at the 2022 PAS Virtual Conference PharmaTalk on April 29, 2022.
George Furneaux – PAS 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award
“George’s long list of exemplary contributions is nothing new or unheard of to anyone in the sphere of pharmacy in the city of Regina, within the province of Saskatchewan, and across Canada.
Since graduation he has shown a great degree of professionalism in his professional practice and dedication to furthering pharmacy in Saskatchewan. He has served the province well for over 30 years in Saskatchewan as a pharmacist at a number of locations, predominantly at one of the busiest Shoppers Drug Mart Pharmacies in Western Canada.
Simply put, Saskatchewan Pharmacists would not be where they are without the contributions of a member like George, his longstanding tenure within PAS and SCPP, his activities serving as a peers lead within the Shoppers Drug Mart system, his ongoing commitment to serving the community demonstrate a valuable member that makes us all better”.
Sarah Lynds – PAS 2022 Pharmacist of the Year
“I have worked with Sarah Lynds for a little over a decade at Battlefords Union Hospital. As a critical care nurse and as a nurse educator I have witnessed her exceptional care at the bedside with direct patient and physician education, multidisciplinary rounding in ICU, ER, and medical/ surgical wards. Not only have I seen her involvement, but also leadership in numerous quality improvement projects such as Med. dispense, Med. Reconciliation, Patient order set implementation/creation/improvement, multidisciplinary international rounding, COVID RSI/ Resus./ isolation kits to list only a few.
Sarah not only focuses on providing the best patient care first hand, but expands to how healthcare can work better, easier, and safer, so all healthcare members involved in patient care can provide the best. This past year Sarah has stepped up even further. With the added needs that COVID has presented she also stepped up to fill the role of manager of Pharmacy services for the North West.
Sarah was first hand involved with vaccine inventory storage, management, distribution and logistics for the North West. As the manager of a Drive thru Covid vaccine clinic and involvement with rural/mobile vaccine delivery I have personally seen her working late evenings, early mornings and many weekends to provide education and support wherever needed. The SHA and all those who work with and around Sarah can attest we are very fortunate to have someone as hardworking, caring, and dedicated as Sarah.” – Sarah’s nominator
Delee Foley – 2022 PAS Bowl of Hygeia Award Recipient
“ Delee is the third owner of Bengough Drugs after her father George, and one other owner, going back to the early1900’s. Delee was raised in a family of makers and builders, and she has given back to her community her whole life. In addition to owning a successful business, Delee has been involved in the Bengough Business Association, promoting local businesses and tourism in the Big Muddy area. Delee’s a member of the Bengough Community Association (BCA. Delee holds an executive membership on the Bengough Municipal Arts Council and organizes the Annual Gateway Music Festival.
Delee is the only injection certified pharmacist in Bengough and her pharmacy serves a massive geographic area. Delee and her husband Kevin often personally deliver medication to customers in their homes, not only in Bengough, but in surrounding communities not serviced by a local pharmacist. When the pandemic hit, and before vaccines were available, Delee’s staff was hit with Covid- Under the cover of masks, barriers, and excellent sanitation measures, Delee worked with a skeleton crew to initiate vaccines in her community.
To date, Delee has administered thousands of Covid-19 vaccines in a town with a population in the mere 300’s. People in southern Saskatchewan have flocked to her, bringing many hesitant friends and family members along for advice, patient counseling, kindness, AND vaccines. While many in community pharmacy took a break after the initial rush of vaccinating over the summer, and again when flu shots came out, Delee continued offering Covid vaccines from May 2021 to the end of January 2022, often staying late or working extra to fit that last person in.
Delee has survived complete destruction and devastation of her pharmacy by fire in October 2016. She built a new store in 2017 while working out of an alternate building. With the amazing support of her community, she carried on and rebuilt patients and customers depend on her for so much in regards to their health and wellness. She is accessible, knowledgeable, kind and trustworthy. She is a respected pharmacist, business owner, mentor, wife, mother and grandmother. She is respected by her staff, her community, allied health care professionals, and her colleagues and friends.”
Shoppers Drug Mart 2456 – 2022 PAS Professional Services Award
” Shoppers Drug Mart 2456 has become the COVID-19 hub and resource site for the city of Swift Current. Since the vaccine program began, our team provided over 5,600 covid vaccines and over 300 covid tests (either PCR or rapid while available). Additionally, we were one of the first pilot sites for the dispensing of Paxlovid and became the location to call if you had questions about the vaccine, travel requirements, testing and timing of doses. What makes this such an incredible accomplishment is the population of Swift Current is roughly 17,000 people, meaning our pharmacy team singlehandedly immunized 33% of the population.
Even though you can directly measure the number of patients who benefited from a vaccine, I feel the number of patients we calmed, educated and provided direction on how to manage the complexities of covid, the vaccines, testing and travel was in the tens of thousands over the year. It was absolutely astounding how much our phone rang from May till December. At no point in our 9am-10pm workday did we have all 4 lines free and on many occasions every line was full for hours at a time. Although it was incredibly difficult at the time, looking back as a team a few weeks ago, our pharmacy group was incredibly proud of how many people we touched specifically with respect to their covid journey. ”
Gavin Bush – 2022 PAS Award of Merit
” Gavin has always gone above and beyond as a pharmacist. It’s not uncommon for him to do things like dropping a prescription off at a patient’s house when he’s done work at 9pm, or going to work early on a Sunday morning to make an important specialty compound prescription that a patient had forgotten to reorder in advance. Now, Gavin goes above and beyond as an advocate for individuals living with diabetes. Gavin’s oldest daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes back in 2017, shortly after she had turned 4 years old. Since then, Gavin has become an advocate for those living with type 1 diabetes and Diabetes s Canada initiatives.”
“Diabetes Canada has had the good fortune of working with Gavin and receiving the benefit of his expertise as a healthcare professional, as well as his passion and experience as a father of a child with type 1 diabetes. Gavin is a strong advocate for people with diabetes in Saskatchewan and, as an effective agent of change, has contributed to advancing public policy on issues that improve the lives of people living with diabetes.
For the past five plus years, Gavin has contributed mostly to Diabetes Canada’s work to improve public and private access to needed diabetes medications, medical devices, supplies and care for individuals living with diabetes in Saskatchewan. He is a steadfast volunteer advocate and speaks publicly on Canada’s urgent need for a nation-wide diabetes strategy, Diabetes 360˚. As a dad, he advocates fiercely on issues that impact the health and safety of his daughter and other children living with type 1 diabetes. Gavin’s investment of time to advocate for a provincial mandatory standard of care for students living with type 1 diabetes resulted in the government’s release in 2020 of the Ministry of Education Policy Statement Supporting Students with Potentially Life-Threatening Medical Conditions (e.g., allergies, asthma, diabetes, epilepsy) in Saskatchewan Schools.
Gavin recognizes the personal and economic burden of diabetes and works hard to achieve positive change for his patients and others by attending advocacy training sessions, MLA diabetes outreach and roundtable events, as well as caucus and individual meetings with elected officials, including the Saskatchewan Ministers of Health — Letter of Support from Diabetes Canada
CPDPP and medSask Team Members – 2022 PAS Award of Merit
“As a community pharmacist, the support that has been received from medSask/CPDPP over the last 2 years/during the COVID-19 pandemic has been second to none. medSask has been our go to resource every single day and without fail they have ensured that pharmacists and the public have access to up-to-date, concise and easy to use information during this extremely challenging time. Just ensuring information is up to date would be a massive challenge over the last 2 years, but medSask/CPDPP met that challenge time and time again.
CPDPP courses have ensured pharmacists are well-prepared for immunizing in volumes and populations that many community pharmacists have not faced before the pandemic. Managing and navigating the last 2 years without either of these organizations would have been nearly impossible and to acknowledge that our entire profession relied heavily on both medSask/CPDPP during this time is a well deserved recognition.
Not only did medSask/CPDPP both continually update resources and courses, but they were also available to answer our questions via phone, email and even via social media. I think there was always a collective sigh of relief in our PAS Facebook group when we would see Charity, Kelly or Danielle reply to a question or scenario.”
“We have and continue to visit the medSask website and use their resources multiple times a day. We have their resources printed and pinned and saved to assist us with dealing in the overload of information and information requests that we have dealt with during the pandemic.
“We are extremely grateful to the amazing team of pharmacists at medSask/CPDPP and I can not think of a more deserving group of hard working, caring and kind pharmacists to receive a PAS Award of Merit.”
Drug Plan and Extended Benefits Branch (DPEBB)Team Members
2022 PAS Award of Merit
“As the Associate Director of medSask and Continuing Professional Development for Pharmacy Professionals (CPDPP) out of the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Saskatchewan. In this role, I work closely with the DPEBB pharmacists and can speak to how deserving they are of this award. The COVID-19 vaccine roll-out was novel initiative that we had obviously never seen before.
The DPEBB pharmacists had to develop frameworks and policies for the distribution of the vaccines, but also had to manage a system where pharmacies were changing their involvement in the initiative week to week. It was a rapidly changing process that was extremely challenging. This involved high levels of stakeholder consultations and engagements in a very high-pressure environment.
In addition to the challenging process management, the staff also had to provide customer service to all pharmacies involved in the COVID-19 vaccine initiative. The pharmacists and technicians were dealing with shifting priorities and trying to implement a critical service in an already busy, stressful, workday. The DPEBB pharmacists had to manage expectations, timelines, and patient demands through their service to the pharmacists and technicians. Pharmacy staff were under unprecedented stress, concerns for their own safety, and patients who were often abandoned by other parts of the healthcare system. The pressure on the DPEBB staff would have been immense to not cause extra stress and confusion to pharmacy teams and ultimately their patients.”
“Despite the clearly very challenging days that the DPEBB team had over the past 2 years, I can only provide high praise for the work they did. They played an absolute integral role in the health and safety of Saskatchewan residents. They work behind the scenes and for that reason, I am thrilled to highlight the amazing work they did.” – DPEBB Team Members Nominators
