Professional responsibilities reported by pharmacists completing residencies in community-based settings

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Practice
• Continuing Professional Development

Background:

• Pharmacy residencies are postgraduate training programs designed to enhance clinical skills.
• Understanding the evolving professional responsibilities of residency-trained pharmacists is crucial for career development and workforce planning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the professional responsibilities of pharmacists who completed community-based residencies.
• To determine if different types of PGY-1 and PGY-2 residency training impact job responsibilities.

Main Methods:

• A survey was developed using existing and new questions.
• Surveys were electronically distributed to directors of PGY-1 community-based, PGY-1 ambulatory care, and PGY-2 ambulatory care pharmacy residencies.
• Program directors were instructed to forward the survey to their program alumni.

Main Results:

• 349 responses were received from alumni of 73 different residency programs nationwide.
• Over 97% of respondents felt their residency adequately prepared them for their careers.
• Nondispensing patient care constituted the largest portion of job responsibilities (39.0%–52.5%).
• Current roles showed a significant increase in business/organization management compared to initial positions (17.7% vs. 5.8%; P < 0.001).

Conclusions:

• Pharmacists completing residency training are consistently assigned significant patient care responsibilities in their initial roles.
• The type of residency training or setting does not appear to alter the initial focus on patient care.