Pharmacy Residency

Your YRMC Pharmacy Residency

YRMC’s Pharmacy Residency begins with an orientation that prepares you to serve as a member of our Pharmacy Services team.  You’ll also gain valuable experience during challenging rotations.  Longitudinal experiences will allow you to maximize your learning experience and build an individualized Pharmacy Residency.

As a YRMC pharmacy resident, you’ll work with dedicated preceptors who are committed to ensuring you:

  • Develop strong, well-rounded core skills in both pharmacotherapy evaluation and management
  • Customize your residency curriculum to meet your professional goals and career interests
  • Interact with YRMC’s exceptional healthcare team – including highly trained physician specialists – as well as our patient population
  • Pursue project-based research and management/operations in an acute care setting
  • Benefit from one-on-one instruction and interaction with accomplished professionals
  • A formal wellness and mentorship program

Experience YRMC’s Pharmacy Residency

YRMC’s skilled preceptors guide you during your PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency, preparing you to:

  • Provide optimal, evidence-based, compassionate pharmaceutical care that improves the medication use process
  • Communicate and collaborate effectively with physicians, patients and allied healthcare professionals
  • Display proficiency in education/training of patients and other members of the healthcare team
  • Demonstrate excellence and flexibility in problem identification and problem resolution
  • Strike a balance between professional and personal life through the use of project management skills
  • Exercise leadership and practice management skills in an acute care setting and beyond
Pharmacy Residency Rotations (Required)
    Orientation is your introduction to YRMC’s Pharmacy Services Department and our hospital and health system. You’ll explore all facets of departmental operations including policies and procedures, the formulary, drug information resources, the drug-delivery process and clinical protocols.  
     
    This rotation is designed to develop your knowledge and skills with a variety of acute and chronic disease states. During daily interactions with patients and YRMC healthcare professionals, you’ll apply therapeutic principles and pharmacokinetics. You’ll also develop important skills, including:
    • Problem identification
    • Problem resolution
    • Documentation of consultations
    • Effective communication
    • Transitions in care
    • Provision of drug information
     
    You’ll learn from YRMC’s patient population in our Medical/Surgical areas as well as the Cardiovascular and Intensive Care Units. Daily contact with patients, ICU team members and other patient care providers, will help you build a variety of skills, including:
    • Problem identification
    • Problem resolution
    • Healthcare team interaction
    • Written and verbal communication skills
    • Patient interactions
    • Independent learning
    • Application of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics
    • Provision of drug information
     
    You’ll have the opportunity to serve as an active member of YRMC’s dynamic Emergency Services team. You’ll provide pharmaceutical care to critically and non-critically ill patients in YRMC West’s Emergency Department and Level IV Trauma Center. This rotation prepares you to support direct patient care as part of an interdisciplinary Emergency Medicine team of providers, nurses and other healthcare professionals. You’ll build many skills, including:
    • Problem identification/prioritization
    • Transitions in Care
    • Medication Histories
    • Problem resolution
    • Healthcare team interaction
    • Communication skills
    • Patient/family interactions
    • Documentation of consultations
    • Application of pharmacokinetics
    • Provision of drug information
     
    During this rotation, you’ll review antimicrobial therapy for appropriate selection, dosing and duration as well as oversee de-escalation of antimicrobial agents for patients throughout the hospital. Additionally, you’ll work with a YRMC West hospitalist or a medical service on select patients’ antimicrobial therapy. In that role you will:
    • Assess medication appropriateness
    • Conduct medication histories, when necessary
    • Perform patient discharge education
    • Pursue ongoing medication review
    You’ll also have the opportunity to present a topic at YRMC’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee.
     
    Develop your knowledge and skills in the pharmaceutical care of patients with cardiovascular disease, especially as they apply to therapeutic principles in:
    • heart failure
    • acute myocardial infarction
    • coronary artery disease
    You’ll observe and participate in activities in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab, Electrophysiology Lab, Cardiovascular ICU, Progressive Care Unit and Cardiac Surgery. You’ll also experience our state-of-the-art Hybrid Operating Room Suite. 
     
    Develop the skills you need to provide pharmaceutical care to ambulatory patients during this rotation. You’ll experience firsthand the role of the pharmacist as part of an outpatient healthcare team during this rotation with Yavapai Regional Medical Group Clinics.  
    Learn the role of Pharmacy Informatics in the community hospital change-control process. You’ll help identify opportunities to improve workflow and management, the institutional approval process, project execution and performance assessment. You’ll also get involved in initiatives to balance the convenience of technology integration with patient safety and current practice guidelines.  
    Work alongside our clinical team and participate in all aspects of pharmacy services offered in YRMC’s state-of-the-art Infusion Center, which serves 400 to 600 patients per month. This experience includes:
    • Patient assessment and re-assessment
    • Monitoring
    • Reviewing labs
    • Consulting and providing education to nurses and patients
    You’ll observe patient responses and evaluate lab values and make recommendations on therapy dosage changes, or additional therapies for Infusion Center patients.
     
Longitudinal Experiences (Required)
    Project Requirement
    Successful completion of a residency project is required to earn a Certificate of Graduation from YRMC’s Pharmacy Residency program.

    Topic and Supervision
    Develop your own project topic, select one from our suggested list or consult with a preceptor to identify a topic. The project will be directly supervised by the preceptors who have expertise in the selected discipline.

    Presentation and Publication
    Your project will be presented as an abstract and as a platform presentation at a regional pharmacy resident conference. It also must be submitted to your preceptor and YRMC’s Pharmacy Services program director. Additionally, you’re strongly encouraged to:
    • Submit an abstract of the project at a second regional or national pharmacy meeting
    • Publish the results in a peer-reviewed journal
    As part of your YRMC Pharmacy Residency, you’ll be expected to successfully complete the Clinician Educators Program offered by Midwestern University-Glendale.

    You will have the opportunity to attend and present at conferences and will be required to develop a poster presentation for at least one. Those conferences include the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition, the Western States Conference for Pharmacy Residents, Fellows and Preceptors and/or the Southwestern States Residency Conference.
    You will be required to contribute to hospital committees including Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Antimicrobial Stewardship and Medication Safety. Residents are assigned a Medication Use Evaluation (MUE) to be completed and presented during the residency. Leadership topics are assigned and explored throughout the academic year.

    You will be required to obtain BLS and ACLS certification and demonstrate competence in dealing with medical emergencies.

    Pharmacy Services is an integral part of YRMC's leadership team, providing comprehensive, high-quality healthcare consistent with our communities' needs. Administrative/Management activities include:
    • Directing the organization's controlled-substance surveillance program
    • Reviewing, researching, and implementing strategies with regard to medication events
    • Assessing budgets and purchasing trends
    • Evaluating and researching medication use to provide evidence for formulary changes.


YRMC’s Employee Benefits

YRMC has a comprehensive employee benefits package. Here’s an overview of our benefits. You’ll receive detailed information about YRMC’s benefits to help you make decisions about your health and other coverage.