UIC Pharmacy Practice Residency FAQ’s
- What are the required rotations?
- How many electives do the resident get?
- How long are the rotations?
- How much staffing is there?
- Are there rotations off-site?
- How many residents are you recruiting?
- Is there a preference for in-state or out-of-state school graduates?
- What is the “on-call” program?
- What teaching responsibilities are there?
- Where the residents go after the residency?
- What are the strengths/weaknesses of the program?
- How do you keep track of the individual resident?
- Do I really need to do a Pharmacy Practice Residency prior to a PGY-2 Residency/Fellowship at UIC?
- What PGY-2 Residencies or Fellowships are offered or will be offered at UIC?
- How much vacation (and other benefits questions)?
- How much is the stipend?
- When is the application due?
- When is the start date?
- Do I have to have an Illinois license?
There are five traditional month long required rotations: Internal Medicine, CriticalCare, Pediatrics, Drug Information and Pharmacy Systems.
The resident is also required to attend a half-day longitudinal Primary Care Clinic for the entire year. This clinic activity excuses the resident from any activity otherwise scheduled by the assigned monthly rotation. This ambulatory care service component may be split into two different six-month clinic sites.
The resident is also required to participate in the on-call program throughout the year. The sole exception is during the Pharmacy Systems rotation when the resident is assigned to Hospital Pharmacy Systems. Rarely (but especially in August and September) may the Hospital Pharmacy Systems resident be given an on-call assignment scheduled around the assigned staffing hours scheduled for that specific month.
The resident is required to attend the July orientation activities, which is usually completed after three weeks.
What do you mean by Pharmacy Systems rotation?
Each resident is required to successfully perform in the Pharmacy Systems rotation, which is moderately analogous to an administrative rotation. Currently, there is both a Hospital Pharmacy Systems rotation and an Ambulatory Care Systems rotation. Residents will be assigned to either site based on past experiences and future career plans. Specifically, residents planning an ambulatory care career or those with extensive in-patient professional experiences prior to the residency may be assigned the Primary Care Systems rotation. All other residents will be assigned to the Hospital Pharmacy Systems rotation typically starting in August with the resident with the least prior in-patient professional experiences. Both sites will require some staffing assignments; in the Hospital Pharmacy Systems rotations this consists of about 50% of the workweek and specifically includes three weekends (both days). All the practice management goals of the residency are designed to be addressed but not limited to this experience.
The residency provides for five months of electives, five months of required rotations, the July Orientation and project weeks scheduled over the year. Typically, each resident is scheduled to have two required rotations and two electives during August through November and the remaining three of each during January through June.
Resident interests are solicited after the ASHP Matching Program results are announced and a preliminary schedule for the first six months is prepared and distributed during the first week of July. For the past twelve years, many residents have been successful in obtaining four of the requested electives. Exceptions can occur and are discussed/negotiated with the Residency Director on an individual basis. Factors influencing the ability to be assigned all the desired electives are performance, preceptor availability, concurrent PGY2 resident assignments and the interest of the other PGY1 residents.
There is “staffing” year round when one considers that the on-call program is clinical staffing. By common or traditional “staffing” definitions, the only staffing that is required occurs during the Systems rotation month. Approximately half that rotation is staffing, the total amount varies by the month’s length.
Is there emergency staffing?
There is not. When emergencies arise, the residents may be asked to volunteer to cover or assist in service coverage and they are allowed to do so as long as there is no concomitant on-call assignment. If the emergency persists beyond a single day/weekend, then residents would only participate if there were no conflict with regularly scheduled rotation and on-call assignments.
How often do you take call?
During July and August while for training and while awaiting licensure in Illinois, it is approx. every four days. Once every resident is licensed, each resident averages 4 shifts monthly. Until a resident is licensed, they must be accompanied on-call by another licensed resident which has an obvious impact on scheduling frequency.
Do I get time-off following call from rotation responsibilities?
Currently, there is no scheduled compensation time off following a call shift during the next business day. The program adheres to the guidelines and suggestions of the ACGME Duty Hours Standards which can be found at the ACGME Website.
http://www.acgme.org/acWebsite/dutyHours/dh_index.asp
Essentially, every effort is made to assure that no one resident’s work week is scheduled to exceed an average of 80 hours over a rotation of assigned clinical service activity.
What do I do on-call?
Required responsibilities are attendance to all “Codes” as a participating member of the Code Team. Residents are required to assist in the ordering and initiating of all TPN’s on the AM weekend shifts and all acute Strokes as a member of the “Stroke Team”. Residents are required to assist in the ordering and initiating of all TPN’s on the AM weekend shifts. Most of the remainder of the responsibilities is answering drug information questions (typically empiric antibiotic selections, pharmacokinetics, adverse drug reaction identification and computerized order entry issues) for the on-call medical house staff.
I am alone on-call in July?
No. All new training residents are paired up through July and August with another classmate. During July, the pair of new residents are accompanied by a ‘Trainer”, this is usually a specialty resident or a fellow who has just completed a Pharmacy Practice residency at UIC. There is always a clinical faculty member and a hospital pharmacy administrator on back-up telephone call year round daily.
Who takes on-call?
All Pharmacy Practice Residents and all new specialty residents and fellows whose interests are in in-patient acute care specialties and who have not previously taken part in the on-call program are required to participate.
All residents must give a 45-50 minute lecture in the Pharmacy Grand Rounds class held every Spring semester. This is to the first professional year students and is intended to be interesting, motivating and provide a reflection on the individual speaker’s clinical activities and interests.
All residents participate in the Special Topics in Postgraduate Education Class (PMPR 359) that is held both semesters. The participation may include interactive classroom discussions with the average enrolled 40 students but consistently includes precepting the students during their required shadowing experiential during on-call hours.
All residents are given the academic title “Clinical Instructor” to reflect the common occurrence of fourth year professional students being assigned to the same clinical service site as the resident. Though the primary site preceptor for the resident determines specific resident teaching responsibilities, all residents are expected to contribute to precepting and educating those clerkship students. This is especially likely on the Critical Care, Drug Information, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Primary Care rotation assignments. Residents are also expected to participate with IPPE and APPE students when those students assignments occur within a residents assigned experiential activities.
All of these activities combined with attendance and completion of varying activities scheduled over the entire year do result in the resident obtaining a certificate in clinical education from the College of Pharmacy.
Is there an Early Commitment process?
Yes..
Fellowships are offered in Clinical Research, Infectious Disease, Nephrology, Organ Transplant, Pediatrics, Pharmacoeconomics, and Pharmacokinetics/Pharmaco-dynamics.
Does that include the letters of recommendation?
No. Letters may (frequently are) be received later than the application date. The only penalty a candidate suffers because of a later letter of recommendation is a delay in the evaluation for an interview. Not all applicants are interviewed; on average there will be 48 candidates interviewed for 12 slots. Please recognize the value of providing your reference’s contact information. We can and have contacted them prior to receiving a letter to facilitate evaluation of your packet.
Does that include the transcript?
Yes. Please recognize that the most current transcript may not be necessary. A transcript missing one or two clerkship/clinical rotation grades is easily supplemented by any letters or recommendations that are written by the preceptor/s of those rotations. In addition, a complete transcript can be sent at any time prior to the March 7th, once the final fall semester/quarter grades are available provided that a recent transcript has already be sent.
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I have to start late, what do I do?
You should discuss the situation with the Program Director. Residents may miss a portion of the Orientation process with such negotiation but are still expected to fulfill all the requirements of orientation. Some portion or all of the missed time will count towards the allotted vacation time. Once a resident exceeds a total of a month’s absence from the program, discussion regarding the circumstances and the need to extend the residency past the usual end date of June 30th into the following July must take place.