Development of a psychiatric pharmacy internship program at a children's hospital

The creation of the Inpatient Psychiatric Pharmacy Intern Shift (INSPY) program at an urban, tertiary care children's hospital is described.

In 2021, the INPSY was created at the Pediatric Mental Health Institute (PMHI) at Children's Hospital Colorado (CHCO) with the goal of delivering psychotropic medication information to pediatric patients on an inpatient psychiatry unit, optimizing psychotropic medication outcomes for adolescents, and exposing pharmacy interns to child and adolescent psychiatry early in their pharmacy school training. The CHCO pharmacy intern program includes an average of 20 first- through fourth-year pharmacy interns on staff each academic year. The overarching goal of the pharmacy intern program is to provide high-performing pharmacy interns with opportunities to practice at the top of their scope while functioning as clinical extenders for clinical pharmacists. Two lead pharmacy interns support INPSY shift coordination, maintenance, and academic projects (eg, poster presentations) with mentorship from 3 psychiatric pharmacists and the pharmacy intern program director. After program participation, pharmacy interns report greater confidence designing medication education materials, facilitating medication education groups, identifying patients' psychotropic medication-related problems, applying motivational interviewing techniques, and responding to patient questions or concerns related to their mental illness and/or psychotropic medications.

The INPSY program was demonstrated to have feasibility and acceptability as a training strategy that aligns with national pediatric psychiatric workforce needs by building practical competence, strengthening perceived professional impact, and increasing exposure to high-level psychiatric pharmacy activities.