The role of a pharmacy administration and leadership rotation within postgraduate year two critical care residency training

Abstract

The job of a critical care pharmacy specialist has evolved to include quality improvement and administrative tasks. As such, the American Society of Health‐System Pharmacists (ASHP) highlights specific goals and objectives to ensure post‐graduate year two (PGY2) critical care residents are sufficiently trained to perform these tasks. The PGY2 critical care pharmacy residency leadership at the University of Kentucky sought to develop a 4‐week learning experience entitled, “Critical Care Administration/Medication Use Quality & Outcomes,” as a unique rotation to capture these requirements and activities. The focus of this commentary is to serve as a guide for other residency programs to develop such a rotation, highlight resulting resident contributions to the department, describe perceived benefits of this rotation for residents, and highlight how this rotation impacted graduated residents' early years as practitioners. This learning experience is pivotal to providing a more balanced view of the entire medication use process and the healthcare ecosystem during a specialty residency. PGY2 critical care residents can gain valuable experiences away from the bedside that better prepare them for future tasks in addition to patient care that will be expected of them as clinical pharmacists.