How to get the most out of my PGY1?

[Papichulooo_92]

Hey everyone, this post is more geared to seek advice from current residents, graduate residents, and any RPDs. As a newly matched resident, I am looking forward to making the MOST out of my residency in order to be prepared for any possible career endeavors (ex. PGY2).

What are some ways I can excel in my program aside from 'running through' the required residency curriculum? My goal is to avoid wasting time trying to 'figure out' what I should be doing and go in with a game plan.

Feel free to comment things you have completed, witnessed, or wanted to achieve such as projects, presentations, leadership positions, research, etc.

Hopefully this post can be filled with a lot of great ideas and we can ALL use this as a reference point to help us achieve higher opportunities. I encourage those to make accounts and comment!

Also best of luck to anyone still going through the process! May destiny forever be in your favor.

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[lionheart555]

Hey everyone, this post is more geared to seek advice from current residents, graduate residents, and any RPDs. As a newly matched resident, I am looking forward to making the MOST out of my residency in order to be prepared for any possible career endeavors (ex. PGY2).

What are some ways I can excel in my program aside from 'running through' the required residency curriculum? My goal is to avoid wasting time trying to 'figure out' what I should be doing and go in with a game plan.

Feel free to comment things you have completed, witnessed, or wanted to achieve such as projects, presentations, leadership positions, research, etc.

Hopefully this post can be filled with a lot of great ideas and we can ALL use this as a reference point to help us achieve higher opportunities. I encourage those to make accounts and comment!

Also best of luck to anyone still going through the process! May destiny forever be in your favor.

Congratulations on matching!!

In order of importance -- Btw, I am assuming the program you have matched with was one that you had a strong interest in certain components

1) Your interest - I can't stress enough but make sure the program is doing for you what you were "promised" and told during your residency interview and during showcases you hopefully attended. If they told you will get that awesome project but then tell you another RPh will do it, I would fight back and say you want to do that project. If you really wanted to see an elective HIV or oncology, and they say "well we have opioid management in the pain clinic," don't just take the opioid management rotation!

2) *External* Networking - You will meet A LOT of great and talented professionals within the company/institution you work for. Great, but how will that help your growth in the 5-10 years. Nowadays it is not uncommon for new working professionals to get experience (short term) at multiple companies. It will help you become more diverse, multi-skilled, possibly more cultured. How is your program connecting you with professionals that work elsewhere? Do you get conferences to go to outside of Midyear? Do you get to work with local universities? Do you get to meet professionals at other institutions/companies?

3) Independent or not independent work - As great and amazing preceptors are, it does no good for you if preceptors do not give feedback, or always just tell you your work is good. If you are seeing nothing but positive comments but getting a lot of written feedback making fixes to your presentations/write-ups/notes/etc, it may be time to ask your preceptors to be more upfront about how you are doing. You don't want to think you're doing swell, then learn on the rumor mill later they actually think you suck (happened to me!)

4) Preceptoring, Mentoring, Leadership - Have you thought about any of these opportunities? Residency is a great way to find an excuse to connect with leadership/executive teams or to extracurricular opportunities that grow your leadership, managerial, mentorship potential. Maybe work with a student organization at a local school?

That was just off the top of my head. After 9 months of residency, these are the things I think about all the time now. Especially numbers 2 and 3.

I'll edit if I think of more.

Best of luck!

 

[Rx Maz]

As above I would also add:

1. Enjoy your time when you can - don't get too worked up with everything. If you have co-residents get to know each other, do social things; it's a big part of a residency in my opinion.

2. Maintain your connections before going into residency, during, and after. Don't forget about the people that have helped you so far; they might have something for you too once your year finishes !

 

[Papichulooo_92]

Thank you both of you for your thoughts! Really insightful*.

Both of you touched on some great topics such as external networking and keeping in-touch with everyone I have already crossed paths with along this journey.

I believe the hidden gem in lionheart555s's post was about pushing yourself and looking for as much constructive criticism from preceptors to grow as a resident/learner/pharmacist. Creating this post stemmed from my biggest fear of finishing and feeling 'mediocre' because of not utilizing my time investment wisely -- potentially turning this experience into a bad investment. My goal is to finish feeling accomplished and seeing exponential growth and becoming a competitive clinical pharmacist.

Please I encourage anyone to post anything they felt that really contributed and propelled them (or someone they know) into having a PGY2 or amazing starting career post-residency. Again I am hoping that we can all use this post as a reference into making the best out of our residencies and start off on the right foot.

 

[headortail]

I don't know how your residency staffing will be structured, but I can't believe how underrated "staffing" is in a residency curriculum.

In most work settings, you won't be required to cite primary lit on a daily basis (possibly if you round on a specialty team like cardio, peds, etc but community hospitals, typically no). But if you want to remain in hospital pharmacy, knowing how to staff efficiently is a must. That means:

- Being able to use the computer system very efficiently. If you're not "a computer person", better become one. I can't tell you how much time some people waste and slow others down because they can't figure out how to input an order or order set.
- Know tech workflow inside out.
- Really pay attention to shortages and what's currently "in". It's annoying to have the central/IV pharmacist fix your orders because you entered it as a premix but it's no longer available as much. LEARN YOUR IV PRODUCTS AND FORMULARY.

Staffing is not hard (neither is "clinical work" tbh), but it takes time to get used to. Whenever you staff, don't have the attitude of many residents I've met (ugh, I'll never be staffing again, they're just slaving me, I'll just do "clinical work" later). Try to learn as much as possible from the operation/workflow standpoint. While it's true that some places abuse their residents and make you work shifts that involve very little (like checking cassette fills), if you staff an order verification shift, embrace it. It will be overwhelming at first, but it's what any hospital job is about. If you can't staff well, you can't function well in a hospital pharmacy and will slow down your colleagues (who will have to keep fixing your order entry).

Personally for me, hospital operations/staffing was the toughest rotation, because everything was foreign - from compatibility to drip rate. The clinical rotations will be just fine if you have reasonable preceptors and did well in school/are efficient at reading guidelines.

The only disclaimer I have to make is that I was very fortunate to train with very good staffing pharmacists (who had all the credentials and ability to work the clinical shifts but chose not to d/t the timing of the shifts). When I staffed with them, everyone was expected to call on weird abx choices, intervene on anticoag dosing, insulin dosing, etc. Basically it's like working the clinical shifts, plus order entry. If you train with less clinically-minded people who are just making sure the orders are correct but don't question clinical appropriateness, you may get less out of it.

My 2 cents.

 

[Papichulooo_92]

BUMP -- any new tips for making the most out of my PGY1?