The following is a brief overview of required, elective, and longitudinal learning experiences offered to residents of Good Samaritan TriHealth Hospital. Residents are scheduled for six required and four elective learning experiences over the course of the residency year. All longitudinal experiences are required and are completed over the course of the residency year.
| Required Learning Experience(s) | Elective Learning Experience(s) | Longitudinal Experience(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Orientation | Ambulatory Endocrinology | Administration |
| Ambulatory Care | Acute Obstetric Care |
Emergency Code Response |
| Critical Care | Cardiology | Pharmacy Practice/Staffing |
| Emergency Medicine | Hematology/Oncology | Research Project |
| Infectious Diseases |
Informatics | Teaching and Education |
| Internal Medicine | Neonatal Intensive Care | |
| Neurovascular Intensive Care | ||
| Population Health |
||
| Psychiatry/Neurologic Medicine | ||
| Specialty Clinical Pharmacy |
The residency year begins with a comprehensive six-week orientation program designed to prepare residents for success in their training. Prior to starting within the Department of Pharmacy, residents participate in TriHealth corporate orientation programs to become familiar with the organization’s mission, values, and culture. During the orientation experience, residents are introduced to the policies, procedures, and diverse pharmacy practice settings within the Good Samaritan Hospital Department of Pharmacy. Residents work closely with the Residency Program Director to develop an individualized Resident Development Plan tailored to their professional goals and areas for growth. By the conclusion of orientation, residents will have gained proficiency in the pharmacy department’s technology platforms and developed a foundational understanding of the medication-use process, medication distribution systems, and clinical pharmacy services across the health system.
Unlike many area programs, the ambulatory care experience at GSH is a dedicated learning experience at an individual practice site. Residents will spend four weeks in this required learning experience at the Faculty Medical Center on the 5th floor of the hospital. The goal of this learning experience is to provide the resident the opportunity to develop expertise in the medication therapy management of chronic diseases such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and coagulopathy. Residents will interact with patients daily to assess the need for education, lifestyle modifications, self-medication administration, and adjustments to therapeutic care plans. The resident will serve as a drug information resource to the many medical resident services who utilize this clinic (family medicine, internal medicine, OB/GYN, etc.). Advanced knowledge of disease states will be garnered through assigned discussions and projects by the preceptor. The resident is also responsible for co-precepting any student pharmacists on the service.
The critical care learning experience is a 6-week required learning experience which focuses on providing pharmaceutical care to critically ill medical and surgical patients. The resident’s primary responsibility during this learning experience is to provide pharmaceutical knowledge to the interdisciplinary team through daily rounds. The resident will assess each patient before and after rounds to ensure appropriate care is provided so as to promote the best possible patient outcomes. Through this residents will develop clinical knowledge necessary to gain confidence in recommending appropriate drug therapy in the critical care setting. Advanced understanding of disease states and treatment modalities will be gained through discussions and projects assigned by the learning experience preceptor. Additionally, residents will gain familiarity with the management of medical emergencies through participation on the code response team.
Located in the hospital district of downtown Cincinnati, the Emergency Department at GSH receives approximately 62,000 patient visits per year. While on this learning experience, the resident will focus on emergency medicine and transitions of care. Residents will work with all disciplines present in the ED to ensure appropriate intake of admitted patients. Direct patient care will be provided by way of patient interactions including interviews for medication histories, reconciliations, and education. Residents will work with prescribers to ensure appropriateness of empiric therapies started within the ED. Residents will be ACLS certified and respond to all medical emergencies. Additionally, residents will participate in ED discharge antibiotic surveillance. Projects, presentations, and topic discussions are to be completed as assigned by the learning experience preceptor.
The infectious diseases learning experience is a 4-week required learning experience with three aspects of practice. The resident will spend multiple days a week providing direct patient care through rounding with the infectious diseases medical team. Through this, the resident will refine his/her approach to collaborative practice. Residents will proactively review patients for response to treatment and learn to make adjustments to care plans based on culture data and other patient factors. Other days of the week the resident will participate on the Antimicrobial Advisory Team providing antimicrobial stewardship services. Finally, the resident will spend one day per week in the microbiology lab learning basic functionality of its services and how it relates to pharmacy practice. Additional opportunities exist to advance therapeutic knowledge through topic discussions and case presentations.
The internal medicine learning experience is a 6-week required learning experience, focusing on medical care of adult inpatients. The primary responsibility of the resident during this learning experience is to provide pharmaceutical services to the medical team through interdisciplinary rounds. This learning experience stresses the importance of accurate application of therapeutics in patient care, and requires the resident to develop skills in proper drug therapy selection, patient monitoring, pharmacokinetics, patient education, drug administration, and delivery of pharmaceutical care. Core content will be covered by way of patient interactions, discussion of reading material and guidelines, and case presentations. Additional responsibilities include ensuring continuation of appropriate care through transitions of patients through the healthcare system.
The Ambulatory Care-Endocrinology learning experience is a 4-week elective learning experience offered for PGY1/PGY2 residents at Good Samaritan TriHealth Hospital. The resident will work closely with TriHealth Clinical Pharmacist Specialists working in Endocrinology and pharmacy leadership to advance and expand clinical pharmacy services. The resident will serve as the Clinical Pharmacist Specialist that works collaboratively with the Endocrinology team to manage unnecessary and avoidable health care costs while focusing on preventive care and disease management.
This elective learning experience is embedded within the Acute Obstetrical Care Unit at TriHealth Good Samaritan Hospital, where high-risk obstetric patients are managed for conditions including, but not limited to, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, gestational and preexisting diabetes, premature rupture of membranes, preterm labor, postpartum hemorrhage, and peripartum infection. As an integral member of the interdisciplinary obstetric team, the resident will work alongside attending maternal-fetal medicine specialists, obstetricians, OB/GYN residents, labor and delivery nurses, and midwives to provide evidence-based pharmaceutical care across the pregnancy-childbirth spectrum. The experience offers immersive exposure to the unique pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, and patient safety considerations inherent to obstetric and perinatal pharmacotherapy. Participating in daily multidisciplinary maternal-fetal medicine rounds, the resident will perform admission medication reconciliation, identify and resolve medication therapy problems, and provide drug information and education to both patients and members of the care team.
The elective cardiology learning experience at Good Samaritan TriHealth Hospital is a relatively new extension of the pharmacy service line. This learning experience focuses on direct patient care as part of the cardiac medical team as they provide care to inpatients on telemetry units and the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit. Additional time may be dedicated for the resident to attend and observe procedures in the electrophysiology lab while learning of the clinical application of cardiac medications in procedural environments.
The focus of the inpatient oncology experience will be on adult hematologic malignancies (acute and chronic leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, Hodgkin’s and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and myeloma) and the comorbid conditions affecting admitted patients. Residents on the inpatient oncology service line will provide direct patient care while rounding one on one with consultant oncologists. Enhanced knowledge about certain disease states will be gained through topic discussions with the preceptor and completion of assigned projects.
The goal of this learning experience is to introduce the resident to the medication-use system of TriHealth and its constant evolution by applying pharmacy informatics principles, standards, and best practices. Further, residents will gain basic understanding of the language and concepts of information technology (IT), thereby equipping them to function in the interdisciplinary environment of informatics project teams. Residents will gain insight to the system-level applicability of all pharmacy software and hardware employed at TriHealth. The resident will have the opportunity to explore common practice areas under the scope of an informatics pharmacist such as CPOE background and maintenance, clinical decision support tools, information systems that allow electronic validation of medication orders in real time, automated dispensing cabinets and robotics integrated and/or interfaced with pharmacy information systems, among many other facets of informatics practice.
Good Samaritan TriHealth Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is one of the few Level III establishments in the region. As such, the pharmacy resident will be exposed to the provision of complete pharmaceutical care to this patient population. The resident will work closely with neonatal pharmacists, pediatric residents and fellows, neonatal nurse practitioners, and neonatologists to provide care for pre-term infants born as early as 23 weeks of gestation and up to term newborns requiring intensive care. In addition to learning best practices in this setting, the resident will also participate in process improvement for the medication-use system as well as medication error reporting and root cause analyses. The resident will participate with the interdisciplinary team for daily rounds and attend meetings as scheduled by the preceptor. Topic discussions, journal clubs, and case presentations are to be completed as assigned by the preceptor.
This elective learning experience is designed to promote resident growth of skill and comfort in critically ill neurology patients. As a member of the interdisciplinary rounding team, the resident will be responsible for providing appropriate pharmaceutical care to patients with a range of neurovascular disease states & complications including, but not limited to intracranial hemorrhage, acute ischemic stroke, management of elevated intracranial pressure, complex neurologic orthopedic procedures, and solid tumors. Solidification of disease state understanding and management will be done so through preceptor interaction, topic discussions, and project assignments.
The population health service line is one of the newest endeavors of TriHealth Pharmacy. Residents on this experience will work with the pharmacy manager of population health to address gaps within continuity of care as patients transition from the inpatient to outpatient setting. Residents will spend the majority of their time conducting direct patient outreach to ensure patient accessibility to care, understanding of care, and adherence to medications. Further, residents will analyze provider performance in their management of targeted disease states so as to identify and correct deficiencies of provided care.
The psychiatry and neurologic medicine elective learning experience will provide the resident the opportunity to explore medical management of mental illnesses. The resident will participate with the interdisciplinary team in the inpatient psychiatry ward at GSH. The resident will participate in rounds and psychiatric consultative services throughout the hospital. Additionally, the resident may get the opportunity to observe cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) groups and/or electroconvulsive (ECT) therapy. The resident’s primary responsibility is the optimization of drug therapy in adult patients with mental illnesses, particularly focusing maintaining balance between efficacy and side effects. The resident will discuss patients and/or therapeutic topics with the pharmacist preceptor daily so as to garner better insight into pharmacy practice in this patient setting.
The Specialty Pharmacy Clinic is an elective experience for the PGY1 Pharmacy Residents within our Pharmacist-Led clinics at TriHealth. This experience will incorporate different learning experiences to allow the resident to gain familiarity in a variety of specialty pharmacy disciplines. Throughout the experience, residents will touch upon specialty pharmacy administration, encompassing the understanding, creation, and implementation of policies and procedures that comply with the requirements for Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC) and the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC) for specialty pharmacy accreditation. The resident will work alongside clinical pharmacists and medical providers within both the Pharmacist-led clinics and medical specialty clinics to concentrate on complex disease states including oncology, hematology, hepatitis C, human immunodeficiency virus, rheumatology, inflammatory bowel disease, dermatology, and pulmonology, among others. The resident may have opportunities to contribute and play a key role in the creation and implementation of specialty pharmacy growth through disease state expansion at TriHealth. Residents will participate in precepting APPE students on learning experience at TriHealth Pharmacy Solutions.
The clinical & operations administration learning experience is a ten-month, required, longitudinal learning experience designed to give the resident focused experience in drug policy development, medication utilization evaluation and outcomes, creation and dissemination of education, and implementation and assessment of clinical and operational initiatives. Inherent to the nature of the work, this learning experience helps the resident build analytical and research skills, and promotes the fostering of interdisciplinary collaboration. Further, residents will gain insight into personnel and departmental management principles so as to equip them with baseline knowledge regarding oversight of central pharmacy operations and the drug distribution system. Residents will gain the skills necessary to appropriately balance the competing obligations of a clinical and departmental leader.
The longitudinal emergency response experience is the resident’s introduction to emergency response and code management as a pharmacist. The resident will be responsible for attending all emergency response situations (code blue, rapid response, stroke alert) during their designated assignment periods and should work closely with the preceptor to anticipate needs and ensure the proper use of medications in acute situations. By the end of the experience, the resident should be able to demonstrate the ability to perform efficiently and safely under pressure, communicate effectively within the multidisciplinary team, work collaboratively within a team environment, and maintain familiarity with institutional emergency response procedures and protocols.
The pharmacy practice/staffing learning experience is a requirement of the PGY1 program. After the orientation process and once competent in the use of pharmacy software systems, the resident will provide staffing services in the central pharmacy every third weekend plus one weekday evening shift every three weeks. The resident will perform all duties expected of staff pharmacists, as well as build upon the knowledge and experience gained during other learning experiences throughout the year. The staffing experience will focus on the drug distribution system and consultative pharmacy services. The learning experience will aid the resident in refining skills required of an independent practitioner, such as communication, collaboration, and therapeutic applications. Hours worked in the central pharmacy are in addition to those required for the current learning experience the resident is on, but the ASHP Duty Hours policy must be adhered to.
Residents complete a year-long research project designed to support achievement of the PGY1 program’s goals, objectives, and learning outcomes. As a longitudinal experience, residents develop and follow a project timeline that guides each phase of the research process, including project proposal development, Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of results. Projects are conducted using a traditional original research model. Early in the residency year, residents are provided with a list of research opportunities developed by the Residency Advisory Committee and may select a project based on their interests. Residents who wish to pursue an independent project idea may do so with review and approval from the Residency Advisory Committee. Throughout the year, residents share their work through several scholarly presentations, including Pharmacy Grand Rounds at TriHealth, a poster presentation at the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting, and a formal presentation of final results at a regional residency conference. Completion of a publication-ready manuscript is required as a component of successful residency program completion.
The teaching and education longitudinal experience is a required longitudinal experience designed to provide residents with the opportunity to develop teaching, precepting, and mentoring skills through interactions with student pharmacists and other pharmacy/TriHealth staff members. Residents participate in a diverse range of presentations throughout this experience, including ACPE-accredited continuing education programs, patient case discussions, journal clubs, and interprofessional education presentations. Through this experience, residents enhance their presentation and teaching abilities while learning to develop educational content that meets the needs of diverse audiences. This prepares residents to confidently deliver a wide range of educational and scholarly presentations in PGY2 training and clinical pharmacy practice.
The Teaching Certificate Program hosted by the University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy provides the resident a broad understanding of issues in pharmacy education and opportunities to enhance his/her teaching skills. The resident will attend seminars on the University of Cincinnati campus to review theories in education and develop his/her own teaching philosophy. The resident will provide instruction in Pharmacy Practice Skills Development and/or recitations at the College of Pharmacy. Additionally, course rubrics will be met by giving formal continuing education presentations at GSH. Further, the resident will apply what is learned to the real world setting by precepting pharmacy students throughout the residency year. The resident will learn the four preceptor roles (direct instruction, modeling, coaching, and facilitation), and how to best employ them based on the current level of the student he/she is precepting. Creation and maintenance of a teaching portfolio is required to earn the teaching certificate.