PGY1 Pharmacy Residency

Pharmacy Systems (3 weeks)

This required three-week learning experience at the Salt Lake City VA Medical Center provides an in-depth orientation to current VA technology and the community hospital medication distribution system. The resident works with inpatient and outpatient pharmacy teams to gain proficiency using CPRS, VISTA, ScriptPro, VISTA Chemotherapy Manager, Talyst, and Pyxis to get a foundation for future rotations, patient care activities, and projects. The typical role for the PGY1 pharmacy resident centers on developing system proficiency to support safe, efficient medication distribution and documentation across platforms.

Focused areas for clinical experience include: hands-on use of VA systems and automation and to understand and execute distribution workflows.

Internal Medicine (6 weeks)

This is a six-week experience on one of three Internal Medicine teams on the Acute Medicine floor. Typical teams include an attending, medical residents/interns/students, nurses, clinical pharmacist, etc . Each internal medicine team can care for up to 20 patients. The resident functions as a medication therapy specialist on a multidisciplinary care team, performing admission and discharge medication reconciliation, creating pharmaceutical care plans, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic assessments, drug interaction screening, dosing reviews, and serving as a drug information resource.

Focused areas for clinical experience include internal medicine conditions such as: diabetes, infectious diseases, mental health, gastrointestinal, hepatic, cardiovascular, nephrology, pulmonology, etc

Primary Care (6 weeks)

This required six-week learning experience places the resident as an integrated member of a Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) within primary care clinics at the VA Salt Lake City main campus. The resident independently assesses and develops pharmaceutical care plans for Veterans with chronic diseases, directly developing and monitoring medication regimens in collaboration with the PACT. Typical responsibilities include initiating and monitoring therapy, identifying, preventing, and resolving medication therapy issues, and longitudinally following patients within the team-based model.

Focused clinical areas include diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, hypothyroidism, chronic kidney disease, gout, mental health, and tobacco cessation.

Critical Care: Medical Critical Care or Surgical Critical Care (4-5 weeks)

This required four or five week rotation occurs in the medical ICU (MICU) or surgical ICU (SICU). The MICU is a teaching team incorporating a medical attending, fellow, medical residents/interns/students, and a clinical pharmacist, while SICU includes an attending, a midlevel provider, and a clinical pharmacist. The resident provides pharmaceutical care to critically ill acute care patients, performing admission and discharge reconciliation, developing care plans for complex and high-risk therapies, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic assessments. There is an option to be trained in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) trained during this rotation.

Focused areas for clinical experience include: infectious disease, sepsis, advanced heart failure, GI bleeding, delirium, toxicology, pulmonary, neurology, etc.

Pharmacy Management (4-5 weeks)

This four to five week experience develops administrative competencies. The resident will participate in VA National Telecommunications Systems (VANTS) calls, interdepartmental meetings, and completion of pharmacy administrative projects, with independent time for longitudinal assignments and background reading. The resident’s role includes understanding the VA organizational chart, pharmacy operations, human resources, budget, procurement, staff supervision, and related administrative components, leading or participating in projects to completion, and evaluating policies and procedures across federal, state, and VA regulations. Rotation elements adapt to national VA mandates, inspections, and policy directives, requiring strong independent work and time management skills.

Focused areas include operational leadership, regulatory evaluation, policy analysis, and administrative project execution within VA pharmacy services.

Inpatient Psychiatry Unit (4-5 weeks)

This four to five week rotational experience occurs in the inpatient psychiatry unit (IPU). On the IPU there are four interdisciplinary teams each including a psychiatrist, nurse practitioner, team nurse, social worker, and a mental health clinical pharmacist. The resident provides patient and provider education, conducts admission and discharge medication histories and reconciliation, participates in team rounds, assists with precepting pharmacy students when applicable. The role emphasizes provider/patient interaction and psychotropic drug therapy, reinforced through regular topic discussions to solidify knowledge.

Focused clinical areas include: substance use disorders, PTSD, schizophrenia, bipolar, personality disorders, other mood disorders.

Residency Project (52 weeks)

Residents complete a year-long quality improvement or research project with a selected mentor, following defined timelines and deliverables including proposal development, data collection, intervention or protocol implementation, analysis, abstract and poster for ASHP Midyear, presentation at Mountain States Regional Residency Conference, and a manuscript suitable for publication. Residents who choose to do a quality improvement project will work closely with the systems redesign team to apply A3/Lean principles.

The PGY1 pharmacy residents have three dedicated project weeks scheduled throughout the year to focus on project development and data analysis.

Longitudinal Inpatient Staffing (22 weeks)

From August to December, PGY1 pharmacy residents staff in the inpatient pharmacy 2.5 hours one night a week after their clinical rotation to develop operational competency. The resident’s roles will include verifying and processing medication orders, identifying medication therapy problems, preparing IV medications, collaborating with technicians for timely delivery, and responding to drug information questions from clinicians. During your time in the inpatient pharmacy you will be supported by staff pharmacist preceptors. This experience builds practical inpatient pharmacist skills gained on the core VA pharmacy systems rotation.

Longitudinal Ambulatory Care Clinic (22 weeks)

From January to June, residents select one ambulatory care or specialty clinic and will attend four hours weekly. The role of the PGY1 pharmacy resident on this rotation is to develop and monitor medication regimens, create care plans, and identify, prevent, and resolve medication therapy issues in an ambulatory setting. This rotation is designed for the residents to manage patients on a longitudinal basis providing appropriate medication management and follow up.

Options for longitudinal clinics include anticoagulation, general primary care, clozapine clinic, outpatient substance use disorder clinics, geriatric assessment, geriatric primary care, outpatient mental health, neurology, rheumatology, women’s clinic, or physical medicine and rehabilitation.

Service Commitment (45 weeks)

Every third weekend, residents provide clinical pharmacy services on the weekend. The roles include completing and documenting admission medication reconciliations, and providing support to internal medicine and surgery services. In addition to medication reconcilliation, this role includes answering drug information questions, responding to pager calls, and educating patients on anticoagulation or insulin prior to discharge.

Medication Safety Longitudinal (48 weeks)

Residents build medication safety proficiency by reviewing and investigating patient safety and adverse drug reaction reports in collaboration with the Pharmacy Quality Program Manager. Quarterly each resident reviews the prior month’s adverse drug reaction reports, discuss findings with the manager, and present to the Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee. Monthly the residents will respond to assigned patient safety concerns that were reported.

• · Acute Care Cardiology
• · Advanced Heart Failure/Cardiac Transplant
• · Anticoagulation Clinic
• · Emergency Department
• · Infectious Disease Consult/Antimicrobial Stewardship
• · General Surgery
• · Geriatrics
• · Hematology/Oncology Specialty
• · Home Based Primary Care (HBPC)
• · Neurology/Rheumatology
• · Outpatient Mental Health
• · Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R)
• · Primary Care – Substance Use Disorder (VIP Clinic)
• · Poison Control Center (at the University of Utah)
• · Quality and Medication Safety
• · Services for Outpatient Addiction Recovery (SOAR)
• · Substance Abuse Recovery and Rehab Treatment Program (SARRTP)
• · Transitions of Care
• · Women’s Clinic

* Residents may also repeat any core-block rotation throughout the year

• Opportunity to participate in internal early commitment process
• Opportunity to participate in VA Nationwide Early Commitment (VANEC) process
• Systems redesign and LEAN basics mentorship
• Medication use evaluation
• Poster at ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting*
• Project presentation at Mountain States Regional Residency Conference*
• ACPE certified continuing education presentation
• Creation of pharmacy newsletter
• BLS (required) and ACLS (optional) certificate

• Teaching certificate (optional)

  
  * Indicates conferences attended in 2025-2026. May be subject to change