In addition to the scheduled clinical rotations, residents will also participate in other educational and service activities throughout the year. These include:
Clinical Pharmacy Meetings
Clinical meetings are scheduled Tuesdays & Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. These meetings are comprised of various clinical pharmacy related topic discussions, presentations and activities – including but not limited to residency-related presentations, feedback sessions, preceptor development and educational reviews / updates. This time may also be utilized for operational and safety issues that need to be addressed and/or reviewed by the clinical pharmacy team (i.e. EPIC concerns, policy review, system & departmental-related decision support system management). The calendar with meeting times and scheduled agenda items is available on Microsoft Teams Clinical Group folder. Meeting locations will be provided through Outlook calendar appointment scheduling.
Residency Steering Committee (RSC)
This is a monthly meeting held during clinical meeting time which includes all of the pharmacy residency preceptors & pharmacy residents. In preparation for this meeting, residents are asked to fill out a brief “Residency Steering Committee Progress Update” form. Residents update the group on current progress in various aspects of their residency program, aligning all preceptors with the resident’s development, regardless of current level of involvement. This is a good time to bring up any general residency-related questions / issues. Other residency business and preceptor development topics will be conducted during these meetings.
Service Commitment
The resident will be required to provide approximately 32 hours of staffing per month. This will be comprised of one 4-hour evening shift per week (1600-2000) and every third weekend service commitment. This weekend commitment will alternate between clinical coverage of the pharmacokinetic on-call service and inpatient pharmacy staffing (8-hour shift each day; 0700-1530). Residents are not scheduled for days off during the week to compensate for weekend service.
Clinical Pharmacist On Call Pharmacokinetics Service
Each resident will participate in the pharmacy department’s on-call pharmacokinetics service to ensure that clinical pharmacy services are available to healthcare professionals and patients of St. Louis Children’s Hospital 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Each resident will be on-call for the duration of one week (the week prior to their assigned on-call weekend shift) approximately every six weeks, or as determined by the residency leadership team. The resident will gain experience in evaluating and making therapeutic recommendations for patients outside of their assigned services.
Residency Research Project
The resident will be responsible for conceiving, designing, and conducting a residency project during their year. The project will be completed under the guidance of research mentor and preceptor content expert. (Additionally, the resident will be given the opportunity to complete an administrative project over the course of their year.) A wide variety of projects are acceptable for a PGY1 resident (administrative projects, drug-utilization reviews, quality improvement projects, retrospective clinical studies, etc.). PGY2 residents should undertake a more robust research project related to their specialty area or area of interest. A list of current departmental initiatives and a list of preceptors and their areas of specialty will be provided in July to assist the resident in developing a research project topic. Completion of a manuscript is required and submission to a reputable journal for publication is highly encouraged.
Teaching Opportunities
Based on level of interest and career path, PGY1 residents may be involved in varying degrees of co-precepting rotating Doctor of Pharmacy students during elective pediatric clerkships. PGY2 residents will be required to co-precept one set of students during elective pediatric clerkships. St. Louis Children’s Hospital Pharmacy Department supports rotations from various local pharmacy schools including, but not limited to, the St. Louis College of Pharmacy and Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville School of Pharmacy. Residents will also have the opportunity to be involved in a Pediatric Pharmacotherapy Elective course at a local College of Pharmacy, currently team-taught by the St. Louis Children’s Hospital clinical pharmacists. Additional didactic teaching opportunities may exist at both local colleges of pharmacy.
Resident Education Academy (REA)
Residents will be given the opportunity to participate in an 18-hour teaching certificate program with other Metro Area pharmacy residents. The STLCOP Resident Education Academy (REA) is a didactic teaching workshop series conducted during the fall semester by faculty at the College. The fall REA sessions focus on training the residents in abilities-based instructional methodology and active learning strategies. These didactic teaching workshops prepare the residents for the spring semester, during which time the residents are responsible for conducting a lecture and discussion section in a team-taught therapeutics-based elective at the College. A certificate of completion is given to each resident that participates. Participation in this program is required for all PGY1 residents. PGY2 residents may opt out if a teaching certificate program was completed during their PGY1 year.
Committee Involvement
During their residency year, both residents will be exposed to a variety of hospital committees in order to experience the integral role that pharmacists play throughout the organization. Participation in the Pharmaceuticals, Diagnostics & Therapeutics (P&T) Committee as well as Adverse Drug Event Hospital Acquired Conditions (ADEHAC) Committee is required for both residents. During the monthly P&T Committee meeting, it will be the responsibility of the PGY1 resident to present the Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) report for the prior month [report provided to resident in advance]. During the monthly ADEHAC meeting, it will be the responsibility of the PGY2 resident to review and present the ISMP Newsletter to the committee. Both residents will be required to attend a minimum of two Pharmacy Department Unit-Based Joint Practice Team meetings throughout the year. Residents are encouraged to attend additional service’s Unit-Based Joint Practice Team meetings with clinical preceptors when possible, as they occur during Acute Care Rotations. Additional meeting attendance may be requested periodically in order to meet Leadership / Medication Safety rotation goals & objectives.
Research / Statistics Course
Under the tutelage of pharmacy preceptors from Barnes-Jewish Hospital, residents are lectured on research design, various statistical topics and the use of SPSS. [Supplemental meetings may be provided by Research preceptors at SLCH.] The course is designed to complement the design and analysis of the resident's residency project. Topics include study design and methodology; an overview of the hospital's Informatics database; institutional review board (IRB) submission process and review; an introduction to SPSS and setting up an SPSS database; basic statistical tests; multivariate analysis; and survival analysis. Other statistical topics commonly found on BCPPS board certification exams are also covered and include adjusting for multiple comparisons; sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic tests; and analysis of non-inferiority and equivalency trials.
Community Service Opportunities
The resident will participate in community service roles during Flu Clinic and Poison Prevention Week. “Flu Clinic” is a community service initiative that helps protect our community from illness during flu season. It is a BJH pharmacy-department-organized provision of free influenza vaccines to the community during the first week of October. Residents help screen pediatric patients prior to receiving the influenza vaccine and may be asked to answer medication questions pertaining to the pediatric population. National Poison Prevention Week is a health initiative aimed at medication safety encouragement and education through prevention of accidental ingestions / poisonings. At SLCH, the pharmacy residents organize a variety of activities at either the hospital or in the community, that serve to educate others on how to keep our pediatric patients safe from harmful side effects of medications and other household items.
Travel
PGY1 & PGY2 residents attend the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting in December and are requested to assist with recruitment activities including Residency Showcase. Both residents also attend the Pediatric Pharmacy Advocacy Group (PPAG) annual meeting in the spring of their residency year where they present the findings of their research project.).
Medical Conferences
Additional learning opportunities may be available through St. Louis Children’s Hospital / BJC / Washington University Medical Center. These include Pediatric Grand Rounds (Fridays at 9:15 a.m. in Clopton Auditorium), Department of Pediatric Medicine Noon Conferences (SLCH 3rd floor auditorium), and numerous specialty conferences. These learning experiences are not required but are opportunities to gain additional knowledge and training when applicable and when experience does not conflict with other residency-related responsibilities.
ACLS/PALS
Residents having an interest in additional training in the management of medical emergencies will have the opportunity complete the BJC PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) and/or ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support). Residents would need to have current BLS (Basic Life Support) certification prior to taking ACLS. It is the resident’s responsibility to assure that they can document current BLS certification. This is not a requirement of the program and would be scheduled by the resident if interested.
