PGY1 Pharmacy Residency Program

About the Program

We have four PGY1 positions available. Each resident is paired with their own Resident Coordinator who will provide support and supervision throughout the residency training program.

The Stormont Vail Health PGY1 Pharmacy Residency Program is a one-year training program offering a variety of pharmaceutical patient care and leadership experiences. Our program prioritizes preparing residents to meet the demands of the next step of their career, and beyond. Our goal is to build on experiential competencies and previous experiences to promote our residents' personal and professional growth. We strive to tailor our program to meet our residents’ interests to achieve the best possible experience. Graduates will be able to rely on enhanced skills in clinical judgement, critical analysis, practice self-management, teamwork, and leadership to pursue any career path.

Residency Experiences

Our program has 11 block learning rotations and 6 longitudinal learning rotations; 6 blocks are required, 1 block is selective required, and 4 blocks are elective. Prior to Midyear, and 4 block rotations.

Residents complete a professional certificate program. They may choose between a teaching certificate or other certificate from ASHP or APhA that is comparable in cost and can be completed prior to the end of residency.

Required Longitudinal Experiences

Rotation Name	Length	Description
Orientation	12 weeks	The first 2 weeks of residency are dedicated to initial training and onboarding through “boot camp” learning experiences. Residents complete an orientation checklist and have intermittent meetings scheduled through the first quarter of the program.
Ambulatory Care	46 weeks	Residents complete about 20 half-days in clinic, scheduled approximately every two weeks starting in August. In addition to patient care activities, core requirements include a population health quality improvement project and participating in ambulatory rounds with preceptors.
Clinical Education Series	50 weeks	Residents present 3 journal clubs, 3 case presentations, and 1 grand rounds presentation during standing meeting times. Meetings are 60-90 minutes nearly every week, and meeting time may include residency meetings, preceptor development presentations, or research office hours.
Management and Pharmacy Leadership	20 weeks	Residents meet with department leadership approximately every 2 to 4 weeks starting in December to learn about fundamentals of pharmacy management and leadership. Core requirements include participating in a medication use evaluation (MUE); completing a drug class review, monograph, guideline, protocol, or order set; and book club.
Operations	42 weeks	This rotation begins during week 11. Residents progress through stages of responsibilities in the central pharmacy operations roles. See staffing requirements.
Research	50 weeks	Residents identify a research problem or question and lead their projects to completion with facilitation by a content expert preceptor. Residents participate in at least monthly 1 hour meetings with their research team, in addition to research office hours scheduled approximately 6 times throughout the year. Core requirements include a research protocol, poster presentation at ASHP Midyear, professional presentation at a spring pharmacy conference, a final updated poster for display at Stormont Vail Hospital, and a final manuscript.

 

Required Block Experiences

Rotation Name	Length	Description
Independent Practice	3 weeks	Scheduled as 1 week + 2 weeks right before or right after ASHP Midyear. Residents determine their own schedules; approved by their Coordinator. Residents may work on projects, get additional clinical experiences, or improve well-being through PTO.
Preceptorship	2-4 weeks	Residents act as primary preceptors within a layered learning model. This rotation is scheduled when a PGY1 resident has overlap with an APPE or IPPE student.
Cardiology	4 weeks	Inpatient, most commonly treating heart failure, atrial fibrillation, acute coronary syndromes, hypertension, and shock states. Rotation requirements include a teaching component for Advanced Practice Providers.
Infectious Disease	4 weeks	Inpatient, most commonly treating pneumonia, skin and soft tissue infections, bacteremias, urinary tract infections, and bone/joint infections. Rotation requirements include a teaching component for the Infectious Disease Specialists.
Internal Medicine	4 weeks	Inpatient, most common topics include pharmacokinetic monitoring, alcohol withdrawal, infectious diseases, pancreatitis, stroke, allergies, pain management, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, and anticoagulation monitoring.
Oncology	4 weeks	Inpatient and outpatient, most commonly treating solid organ and hematological malignancies. Common topics include antiemetic regimens, BSA calculations, chemotherapy checklist utilization, chemotherapy sequencing, neutropenic fever treatment, supportive care and tumor lysis syndrome.
Pediatrics, PICU, and NICU	4 weeks	Inpatient, most commonly treating pediatric asthma, pediatric and neonatal infectious disease, seizure disorders, diabetic ketoacidosis and nutrition deficits.
Psychiatry	4 weeks	Inpatient, most commonly treating psychotic disorders, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, substance use disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and pain. Rotation requirements include leading group medication education for both adult and child/adolescent populations.

 

Selective Required Block Experiences

Residents must complete at least one selective required rotation.

Rotation Name	Length	Description
Emergency Medicine	4 weeks	Residents will gain knowledge and skills necessary for treatment of patients experiencing medical emergencies. Residents will respond to rapid response pages for the department and the hospital (RSI, procedural sedation, STEMI, stroke,) trauma activations), as well as assist with reviewing outpatient cultures review, and review of admission medication reconciliation.
Medical ICU	4 weeks	Residents attend interdisciplinary rounds for critically ill patients and learn fundamentals of ventilation, continuous sedation, and sepsis management.
Surgical ICU	4 weeks	Residents attend interdisciplinary rounds for critically ill patients in the trauma/surgical setting and learn fundamentals of ventilation, continuous sedation, and sepsis management for trauma/surgical population.

 

Elective Experiences

Residents may choose their 4 elective block rotations. Each elective block lasts four weeks, and builds on the base rotation experience. Residents have higher expectations for performance, increased autonomy, higher level projects, and different and more advanced topic discussions. The advanced critical care elective may be scheduled one time, and residents may spend time in either the Medical ICU, Surgical ICU, or a combination of both.

• Any selective required rotation
• Advanced Critical Care
• Advanced Emergency Medicine
• Advanced Internal Medicine
• Advanced Pediatrics, PICU, and NICU

Staffing Requirements

• One evening (4 hours) per week in centralized staffing role; total of 36 evenings with breaks noted below
• Two 8-hour shifts scheduled for an average of every 3^rd weekend; total of 14 weekends
• One holiday per year

Staffing begins during Quarter 2 of the residency year, around week 11, and lasts 42 weeks until the final week of the program. Evening staffing is spent in central pharmacy operations roles. Weekends have variable scheduling that averages to every 3^rd weekend. There are 9 central pharmacy operations staffing weekends scheduled every 4^th weekend. There are 5 clinical staffing weekends with variable frequency. Clinical weekends are scheduled every 4^th weekend through December (total of 3 weekends). Then, residents sign up for their 2 remaining clinical weekends based on their timing preferences in January through June.

Residents are provided with one compensation day off prior to weekend staffing shifts. Additionally, there are scheduled staffing breaks throughout the year. Residents do not staff on evenings during the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, ASHP Midyear, and the week of the spring pharmacy conference. Residents do not staff on weekends before ASHP Midyear, the nearest weekend to Christmas, and two weekends in the spring to allow attendance at professional meetings.

Residents may work additional hours as a PRN pharmacist, paid at current pharmacist pay rates. Residents are not allowed to moonlight outside of Stormont Vail Health during their residency training.