Program Design

The PGY1 Pharmacy Residency, Ambulatory Care Track is a 12-month ASHP-accredited program designed to develop residents into strong and capable pharmacy practitioners. While functioning as integral members of the health care team, each resident will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to meet daily demands of pharmacy practice. The resident will solve practice-related problems through critical thinking and evaluative skills. These individuals will become effective educator of other health care professionals, students, patients and the community on medication-related topics. They will develop a commitment to the profession of pharmacy through daily mentoring with other practitioners and will assume responsibility of their own personal growth, striving for life-long learning and leadership.

Rotation Structure

• Ambulatory Care Core Clinic (2 months)
  • Family Medicine, Cardiology, Endocrine, or Geriatric Clinics
• Ambulatory Care Templated Clinic (1 month)
• Ambulatory Care Specialty Clinic (1 month)
• Ambulatory Care Elective Clinic (1 month)
• Acute Care Medicine (2 months)
• Critical Care (1 month)
• Drug Information (1 month)
• Administration (1 month)

Templated Clinic	Specialty Clinic	Acute Care	Critical Care
Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic	Breast Malignancy Clinic	Advanced Heart Failure	Burn ICU
Geriatrics Clinic	CAMP/Telehealth Clinic	Bone Marrow Transplant	Cardiothoracic ICU
Pain Clinic	GU/CNS Malignancy Clinic	Cardiology	Medicine ICU
Solid Organ Transplant Clinic (abdominal)	Gastrointestinal Clinic	Family Medicine	Neurosciences ICU
Solid Organ Transplant Clinic (heart/lung)	Hepatology Clinic	Geriatrics	Surgery/Trauma ICU
Cardiorenal Metabolic Risk Clinic	ID (HIV) Clinic	GI/Hepatology
	ID (OPAT) Clinic	Infectious Diseases
	Leukemia Clinic	Nephrology
	Melanoma/Head/Neck Malignancy Clinic	Neurology
	Myeloma/Lymphoma Clinic	Oncology (Malignant Heme)
	Neurology Clinic	Oncology (Solid Tumors)
	Pulmonary Clinic	Pulmonary
	Rheumatology Clinic

Required Components

Staffing Experience

Residents will receive training and orientation to the department's services for about 6 weeks during the months of June and July. Over the course of the residency year, residents must complete an average of 400 hours of staffing. Pharmacy practice responsibilities include staffing in decentralized or central pharmacist positions. Activities include, but are not limited to, verifying patient-specific orders and medications, providing pharmacokinetic consults when requested, answering in-depth drug information questions, attending all adult codes as the pharmacy member of the code team, nutrition support, providing patient education and solving pharmacotherapy situations as they may arise.

For PGY1 residents, this commitment is fulfilled by staffing every third weekend and for three concentrated week-long blocks distributed over the course of the year. Additionally, residents are also responsible for staffing during one of three major holiday blocks (Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s) and one of three minor holidays (Labor Day, Martin Luther King, Jr Day or Memorial Day). These requirements may be changed annually based on the needs of the department.

Research

Each PGY1 is also responsible to complete a research project that enhances learning objectives and this is completed a 2-step flipped model. During the summer, each resident is assigned to an IRB approved research project, focusing on collecting and summarizing data, analyzing results, and presenting findings at a regional or national meeting.

During the second half of the residency year, the flipped model residents prepare results of their project for publication while also developing a research question and criteria that is proposed to the Research Committee. If approved, projects for the next PGY1 class will proceed through the IRB process. Feedback from the Research Committee is provided at each stage of the year.

Portions of these research projects will be presented at the Vizient Annual Meeting, the Research in Education and Practice Symposium (REPS) or at specified sub-specialty meeting as determined by the research mentor. In addition to conducting and presenting research, residents are highly encouraged to submit a manuscript for publication over the course of the year.

Educational Opportunities and Requirements

UNC PGY1 residents are incorporated into a layered learning model with students (PY2, PY3, or PY4) on rotation at UNC Medical Center, co-residents, including PGY2s, and clinical specialists. Our layered learning model has been piloted on several rotations in which learners of various levels participated on the same team. This model will continue to be offered on many of our rotations. Other educational opportunities include POD discussions, case conferences and continuing education series. POD discussions are topic discussions determined by preceptors ahead of time which can be led either by PGY2s on rotation or a preceptor specializing in that topic.

PGY1 residents will participate in a weekly noon conference throughout the year. The noon conference will be a blend of case conferences (led by PGY1 residents), preceptor led case conferences, and continuing education presentation by the PGY1 residents.

Case Conference

• The PGY1 resident is responsible for creating an interactive, didactic and case-based session about a topic that is assigned correlating to a rotation the resident completes. The residents work with clinical experts in the topic area to develop the 1 hour long session that will give residents exposure to core concepts that all PGY1s should be exposed to during the year.

Continuing Education 

• Residents also develop and present a 1-hr ACPE accredited presentation that is available for all UNC Health pharmacists in the system. There are over 40 live sessions presented by UNC residents throughout the year that are available as a webinar based platform and can be viewed by any pharmacist in the country.

During the Drug Information, Policy, and Medication Safety rotation each resident will complete a medication-use evaluation. The MUE is a performance improvement tool that can be used to benefit the UNC Health group across the state of North Carolina. The resident will also complete a drug monograph or class review.

Teaching Opportunities

Our primary teaching experience is provided through the University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Resident have the opportunity to serve as a facilitator for one semester and course support for the second semester. For the facilitation, the PGY1 resident will participate in either Patient Care Lab or Foundations of Patient Care courses, in which residents work with first and second year pharmacy students. The residents will help facilitate lessons in therapeutic case discussions and to instruct in the basics of physical assessment, patient counseling and written and verbal communications. For Course Support on the opposing semester will involve grading and actively reviewing OSCEs for students. An average of five hours per week is committed to this experience, including teaching, preparation, and grading of assignments.

Residents are offered the option to pursue completion of the Teaching and Learning Certificate Program at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. A significant number of activities in the teaching assistant experience, as well as other longitudinal requirements over the course of the year, apply towards the requirements of the program. An application process is necessary to join the teaching and learning certificate program, and if accepted, residents are provided guidance on lectures, portfolio development and Patient Care Lab participation to receive their certificate.

Residents may be given the opportunity to present academic lectures within the School of Pharmacy or other healthcare professional schools throughout the year. These opportunities will be discussed with residency leadership to ensure a successful experience.

Leadership Opportunities

UNC residents are offered the option to pursue completion of a leadership certificate through participation in the UNCH Pharmacy Residency Leadership Certificate Program. An application process is necessary to join the leadership certificate program, and if accepted, residents will be provided guidance on leading topic discussions, leadership in motion projects, mentorship, and other activities to receive their certificate. The certificate program’s vision is to develop leaders in pharmacy who will serve others, improve their communities, and advance the profession.

Each resident will be also given the opportunity to participate in a committee or longitudinal leadership responsibilities throughout the year that can involve but not limited to recruitment, webpage update, orientation planning, and many more. Residents will have the opportunity to apply for a chief resident position that has a term of 6 months. This gives 2 PGY2s and 2 PGY1s the opportunity to serve in this position.

Professional Meetings

PGY1 residents are required to attend the annual NCAP Residency Convention in July and the Research in Education and Practice Symposium (REPS) in May. Residents are provided professional days to attend up to 2 professional meetings during the year, such as but not limited to ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting.

Resident Initiatives

Residents are at the core of being involved in a majority of initiatives for residents and members of the department of pharmacy, school of pharmacy, and the community.

The pharmacy residents are involved in the nation’s oldest interprofessional student-run free healthcare organization called SHAC. SHAC stands for Student Health Action Coalition that focuses on providing care to community members in need and educate student healthcare professionals.

Residents at UNC Medical Center are also involved in beginning initiatives, such as the ReCHARGE Committee. ReCHARGE stands for REsidents Creating Healthy and Resilient Group Environments and the mission is to create a sustainable environment that fosters resiliency and well-being, driven by and designed for pharmacy residents. This group focuses on advocacy and engagement around resident well-being and providing resources for our residents during the residency year.

Mentorship

The residency program at UNC has a strong history of mentorship and this ideal is built into nearly all aspects of residency training. Each resident will have multiple mentors for multiple purposes throughout the year. Mentors are assigned or chosen by the residents for research projects, presentation development, and personal mentorship. The personal mentor exists to guide the resident through the academic year. The mentor is an individual who can answer questions, provide feedback, and counsel residents on how to approach the many challenging parts of the residency year. Mentors of PGY1 residents participate in all quarterly evaluations and monitors the growth and development of residents over the course of the year with residency leadership.

Evaluations

Evaluations are a large part of the residency process. At UNC, we utilize the ASHP-endorsed online evaluation system, PharmAcademic. Evaluations are built for each individual rotation, as well as for presentations, research, and staffing components of the program. Additionally, quarterly global evaluations are held with the program director, coordinator and/or mentor to ensure progress on long term goals.

Additional Requirements

All residents are required to have a North Carolina license within 90 days of starting the residency year. Please contact Moo Sultan for more information.

Requirements for Program Completion

In order to receive a certificate of Residency completion, residents must complete all requirements specified in the appointment agreement:

• Complete all scheduled learning experiences
• Receive an evaluation score of “Achieved for the Residency” (ACHR) for at least 85% of PharmAcademic objectives required by the program
• Contribute approximately 400 hours of staffing support to the department through weekday, weekend, day/evening, and holiday clinical and/or operational staffing requirements based on departmental needs
• Attend at least 15 hours of resident CE programming
• Participate in all case conferences unless excused by RPD
• Complete all evaluations in PharmAcademic, ASHP's approved tool
• Provide a 60-minute ACPE accredited CE program for pharmacists and/or pharmacy technicians within and outside the Department of Pharmacy
• Participate in required departmental “on-call’ services as necessary to support departmental functions
• Serve on a designated hospital or health system committee as assigned by the program
• Complete MUE and drug monograph/class review
• Upload files to document completion of all required residency components into PharmAcademic (i.e CE, MUE, drug monograph, research project, manuscript)
• Complete a one-year research project or a pre-specified part of a multi-year research project, including all of the following: data retrieval, data analysis, formal presentation (poster OR platform) at a local/regional/national forum, creation of a draft manuscript in publishable quality, project proposal submission, creation of a data collection tool, and IRB submission (if appropriate)
• Serve as a support resource /teaching assistant at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy during both semesters of the academic year