Rotation Schedule

At a minimum, each resident will spend two-thirds of their time involved in direct patient care activities. Longitudinal learning experiences include research, teaching, quality improvement project, and operational staffing. The resident may also choose up to 3 elective rotations each year.

Sequencing of Learning Experiences

Learning experiences are sequenced such that residents completes onsite core learning experiences prior to electives and teaching focused learning experiences. Various electives are offered, including repeating one of the core rotations with greater autonomy and more advanced learning opportunities towards the end of the residency year. 

Core Rotations

• Emergency Medicine (Longitudinal 12 months)
• Poison Control Center (6 weeks)
• Trauma and Surgical Intensive Care (4 weeks)
• Pediatric Emergency Medicine (6 weeks)
• Adult Infectious Disease (4 weeks)
• Research (Longitudinal 12 months)
• Teaching (Longitudinal 12 months)
• Quality Improvement (Longitudinal 12 months)
• Operational Staffing (Longitudinal 12 months)

Electives

• Pediatric ICU/Neonatal ICU (4 weeks)
• Medical/Surgical ICU (4 weeks)
• Neurocritical Care (4 weeks)
• Emergency Medical Services (2 weeks)
• FEMA Mass Casualty Incident Training (1 week)
• Off-site Emergency Medicine/Trauma (1 week) 

Operational Training

All residents receive comprehensive training in each of the operational areas during orientation, including formalized training in sterile compounding and aseptic technique. At the beginning of the residency year, residents are paired with an experienced preceptor who will oversee their operational staffing learning experience through the year and provide residents with summative feedback.

Staffing Areas

Operational staffing occurs longitudinally and takes place approximately every third weekend spanning throughout the residency year for a total of 17 weekends, in addition to one major holiday and two minor holidays. Residents staff in 2 areas: 

Project Selection

The Residency Program Director collects project proposal submissions from clinical pharmacists for consideration as a resident research project on an annual basis in the Spring. Projects are reviewed for feasibility, appropriateness of timeline, potential value that may focus on clinical pharmacist services, quality improvement initiatives such as drug safety, optimal medication use, cost effective drug use, and efficient, safe and effective medication preparation, delivery and administration. The Residency Program Director will reach out to the residents in early summer to start discussion of project selection.

Research Training

PGY2 residents participate in the UCSF Research Certificate Program and will gain skills in adhering to a research timeline, creating an appropriate study design and methodology, completing data collection and analysis and summarizing research findings. Residents are enrolled in the Designing Clinical Research course that is part of the Summer Clinical Research Workshop. This inter-professional curriculum within the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics guides residents through modification of their research proposal and creation of a version suitable for submission to the UCSF Institutional Review Board. Residents will have access to research advisors and statistical computing software (STATA). For projects requiring more advanced statistics, residents also receive support to work with the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) in order to complete analysis.

Residents will participate in a research certificate whereby they attend structured research sessions throughout the year in guiding the successful completion of the research project.

Poster & Platform Presentations

All projects are of a scope suitable for publication. Projects are presented as posters at the UCSF Department of Clinical Pharmacy Spring Research Poster Session and UC Collaborative Meeting. They are also presented as posters at the Vizient residency session that precedes the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting. The final research project write-up is prepared in a format suitable for journal submission. 

Teaching Instruction

Teaching is a focus of the residency at UCSF, and residents receive a Teaching Certificate upon program completion if they complete the required elements of the program. The certificate recognizes the significant contributions and skills that are attained during the residency year. Residents receive training in teaching methodology, precepting and small group conference facilitation through a variety of educational seminars that are planned during the year.

Teaching Experiences

Teaching opportunities may include the following:

• Precepting of PGY1, APPE, and IPPE students on clinical rotations and project-based work
• Precepting of PGY3 and PGY4 Emergency Medicine physician trainees
• Inter-professional education through Emergency Medicine conference
• Large group teaching
• Small group teaching
• Simulation lab 

Overview

Pharmacy residents are integral members of the inter-professional emergency response care team. All pharmacy residents will become certified in Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS), and receive hands-on code training by the Emergency Medicine Pharmacy team. Residents respond to Code Stroke, Code Sepsis and Code Blue to ensure appropriate drug selection and administration, timeliness of medication retrieval and preparation, adjusting medication dosages and monitoring for response.

Simulation

The UCSF Residency Training Program has developed and implemented a longitudinal simulation curriculum for PGY1 Pharmacy residents to increase confidence and competence during various emergent situations. The program utilizes the Kanbar Center for Simulation and Clinical Skills, a high-fidelity simulation center within UCSF. Throughout the residency year, residents participate in 4 simulation lab sessions, each covering 4 cases. The clinical case scenarios become increasingly complex as the residency year progresses and is intended to meet the advancing skill set of the residents. Clinical pharmacist content experts are invited to the sessions to lead the residents through a debrief of the simulation session and allow for discussion of advanced clinical topics.

Throughout the residency year, PGY2 residents will participate and then lead a total of 4 simulation lab sessions, each about 4 hours in length. The first session is an introduction for PGY2 residents while the remaining three sessions are co-coordinated by the PGY2 residents. During the last session, PGY2s are responsible for writing a new case and also facilitating the debrief session.