Curriculum

Pharmacy Residency Program

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Required Rotations: Both PGY1 programs have the same required rotations. These rotations are designed as either block or longitudinal.

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Elective Rotations include:

PGY1 – Acute Care Elective Residents

• May select two 6-week block elective rotations from either the all PGY1 Programs and/or PGY1 – Acute Care Electives
• May also elect to take longitudinal HIV rotation

PGY1 – Ambulatory Care Elective Residents

• May select two 6-week block elective rotations from either the all PGY1 Programs and/or PGY1 – Ambulatory Care Electives
• May also elect to take longitudinal Primary Care Ambulatory Office Staffing and/or longitudinal HIV rotation

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Rotation Description

Administration

Work closely with pharmacists at multiple levels of management: clinical  coordinators, community and hospital pharmacy managers, ambulatory care pharmacy services manager, pharmacy director, and senior leadership.

Internal Medicine

Although the facility is smaller in size, Trinity Health Muskegon has one of the highest acuity of patients within Trinity Health. Therefore, our residents are exposed to a wide variety of patient populations. The pharmacy resident spends time rounding on the teaching service composed of medical residents and students and attending physician as an integral part of medication decision making. Pharmacy residents also help mentor and precept pharmacy students on their clinical internal medicine rotation.

Inpatient Central Pharmacy Staffing

This longitudinal rotation allows the resident to gain inpatient staffing experience during intermittent shifts in the central pharmacy. Upon training and licensure, residents will get experience performing clinical and operational duties including order verification and entry, ensuring accurate drug distribution, preparing and checking of parenteral products, and performing pharmacokinetic dosing when consulted.  

Internal Medicine II

The purpose of the Internal Medicine II rotation is to provide residents with additional opportunities to apply their pharmacotherapy and patient care skills. The resident will expand upon skills practiced during their previous Internal Medicine rotation by acting as the primary contact point for all pharmacy/medication-related activities on the inpatient medicine floor.

Cardiology

With our active cath lab and open-heart surgery program, follow patients from surgery to rehabilitation to office visits with the cardiologists &/or the CHF Clinic. Residents gain experience providing clinical services including antiarrhythmic and anticoagulant monitoring of cardiac patients in the hospital.

Committee Service

Become an active member of one of our pharmacy committees. Gain professional and leadership experience facilitating meetings, presenting agenda items, and improving processes and workflows within inpatient or ambulatory pharmacy areas. 

Critical Care

Work alongside the critical care staff and critical care pharmacist to participate in multidisciplinary rounds and take care of patients with acute infectious disease, cardiac abnormalities, renal failure, etc.

Continuing Education

Get experience constructing educational materials and delivering a live continuing education presentation for pharmacy staff to develop presentation skills and gain teaching experience.

Ambulatory Care/Anticoagulation

Explore this opportunity to provide direct patient care in the office setting and educate other practitioners. Provide disease state management for diabetes, asthma/COPD, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia. Trinity Health Muskegon offers anticoagulation services at three different clinic sites within the Muskegon area. Our pharmacists provide direct patient care by using our point-of-care system to manage warfarin and bridge patients on anticoagulants.

Infectious Disease

This rotation offers opportunity to work with our Antimicrobial Stewardship Team including infectious disease specialists, ID pharmacists, and members of the lab and microbiology departments. By the end of the rotation, residents will be able to recommend empiric therapy given suspected organisms, describe mechanisms of action of various antimicrobials, antivirals, and antifungals, and demonstrate an appreciation for microbiology operations and services.

Geriatrics

This rotation offers experience in two different ambulatory care clinics specializing in geriatrics.  Residents work with patients to evaluate medication regimens, counsel on smoking cessation, diabetes, and provide anticoagulation management as well as work as a part of the interdisciplinary team.

Emergency Medicine

This rotation is designed to expose the resident to the diverse patient population in the emergency department including different levels of care. Residents will provide pharmacological care and help manage higher acuity patients under the direct supervision of their preceptor.

Emergency Medicine II

Emergency Medicine II is designed to allow the resident more autonomy with direct patient care activities, by applying previous skills and managing a larger number and higher acuity of emergency department patients. Managing medical emergencies at the bedside including but not limited to cardiac arrest, stroke, trauma etc. will be required during the ER II rotation.

Unit-based pharmacy

This allows our residents to complete a portion of their staffing component staffing as a unit-based pharmacist providing clinical pharmacy services on one of our patient care units in the hospital.

HIV

Work with an interdisciplinary team of nurses, case managers, and physicians to provide medication education to patients, educate team members, and work with providers on medication regimen evaluation and selection in this unique patient populations.

Medication-Use Evaluation (MUE)

This longitudinal experience involves resident creation and presentation of a medication-use evaluation. Residents will select a topic at the beginning of their residency year and work with their assigned project team to perform background research, design MUE endpoints, secure IRB exemption or expedited review, obtain and perform data collection and analyze results and trends. The resident will create a poster presentation of their MUE and present their findings at ASHP Midyear (or another platform approved by RPD). The resident will also present their MUE findings locally at a committee or department meeting (committee could include but is not limited to P&T, Med Safety, Antimicrobial Stewardship or Quality).

Medication Safety Service

This longitudinal rotation gives the resident experience performing duties related to Medication Safety including performing medication reconciliations for the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, creating action plans based on Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) action agendas, and developing learning materials and giving instruction to new nursing staff regarding safe medication practices as part of the nursing orientation program.

Population Health

Work with Trinity Health Alliance of Michigan, Trinity Health's Clinically Integrated Network. Focus is on providing clinical services in coordination with care management staff as well as supporting clinical projects related to pharmacy intiatives, quality measures and cost containment.

Primary Care Ambulatory Office Staffing

This longitudinal rotation allows the resident to work alongside the ambulatory care pharmacist at the internal medicine residency clinic to see patients and assist with chronic disease state management and patient and provider education. The longitudinal nature of this rotation allows the resident to build  professional relationships with the providers at the clinic and follow-up with the same patients to provide ongoing care.

Quality Improvement/Research Project

This longitudinal experience is designed to allow residents to get experience designing a study, measuring and interpreting data, and strengthening project management skills. Residents will also learn how to communicate with other medical professionals as well as how to work with the regional institutional review board for proposal submission. The projects are usually related to the development, evaluation, or enhancement of a current service, but may also involve research. The resident will be responsible for leading the project team, communicating progress, developing, and implementing the project, and collecting and analyzing the results.

Weekend Staffing

This longitudinal rotation allows the resident to gain inpatient staffing experience during the weekend and some holidays. Upon training and licensure, residents will get experience performing clinical and operational duties including order verification and entry, ensuring accurate drug distribution, preparing and checking of parenteral products, and performing pharmacokinetic dosing when consulted. The resident will also answer drug information questions, prioritize orders, provide medications to patients in a timely manner, and document interventions in the electronic health record.

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Sample Resident Schedules

• PGY1 Resident Sample Schedule (Word, 29KB)

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Do You Have a Desire to Teach?

• In addition to the listed rotations, you will have the chance to explore academia via our affiliation with Ferris State University College of Pharmacy. The Pharmacy Education Development and Lecture Series (PEDALS) allows residents to work with preceptors and Ferris faculty to gain experience in teaching and learning. Furthermore, as a teaching facility, you may lecture to nurses, mid-level providers and medical residents
• Trinity Health Muskegon has a longitudinal APPE program in conjunction with Ferris State University for 4^th year pharmacy students. Residents are an essential part of our layered-learning teaching  model and gain experience precepting, facilitating topic discussions/presentations, and giving feedback to pharmacy students.