Rotations

Required

• Orientation to hospital practice
  • During this 8 week rotation, our residents will be oriented to the CRH health system and all aspects of the pharmacy. Residents will be appropriately trained on inpatient staffing including some initial evenings and some weekends. The skills that the residents learn on this rotation will provide a solid foundation for the residents to continue building upon throughout the remainder of their rotations.
• Internal Medicine
  • This 6 week rotation will provide our residents with the opportunity to think critically, apply therapeutic knowledge, and develop crucial skills pertaining to patient care. This rotation may include topic discussions, rounding, and counselling opportunities.
• Critical Care
  • During this 5 week learning experience, our residents will develop knowledge and skills critical for providing pharmaceutical care in the intensive care unit. Under guidance of the critical care preceptor, our residents will be responsible for completing therapeutic drug monitoring, participating in rounds, and providing drug information to the healthcare team.
• Ambulatory Care
  • The Ambulatory Care rotation is a five week learning experience that will allow the resident to practice pharmaceutical care in an ambulatory care setting. During this rotation, the resident will develop professional relationships with patients and clinicians. Our residents will be assisting with pharmaceutical recommendations in the CRH Medication Management Clinic as well as our VIMCare Clinic in the outpatient setting.
• Infectious Disease/Antimicrobial Stewardship
  • This rotation will provide an introductory clinical experience into the practice of infectious disease pharmacotherapy and antimicrobial stewardship. Throughout the rotation, the resident will obtain skills and strategies that may be used to develop antimicrobial care plans, promoting antibiotic de-escalation, and monitoring antimicrobial therapy outcomes.
• Oncology
  • During this five week rotation, the resident will build upon their basic pharmacotherapy knowledge of oncology. Our residents will apply their medication and chemotherapy knowledge and skills to become a drug information resource for patients, physicians, and other health care professionals.

Required Longitudinal Rotations

• Pharmacy Management
  • During this ten month longitudinal learning experience, the residents will be exposed to the operational and clinical practice management side of pharmacy. This rotation may require various projects and meetings relating to these management experiences throughout the year.
• Hospital Pharmacy Practice
  • In this longitudinal rotation, residents will be appropriately trained on inpatient staffing including some initial evenings and some weekends. The skills that the residents learn on this rotation will provide a solid foundation for them to continue building upon throughout the remainder of their rotations.
• Medication Safety
  • This ten month longitudinal learning experience is designed to further develop the residents’ knowledge and skill base in regards to medication safety and quality improvement sciences. This course will emphasize the areas of Just Culture, system accountability, designing for system reliability, lean sigma principles, and quality improvement surrounding medication events. This rotation will also include a medication safety project and will create a lasting impact in patient safety even after the residents have completed their PGY1s.
• Residency Project
  • The resident’s yearlong project will allow the resident to develop and obtain skills in data collection, analysis, and interpretation of a variety of data as it pertains to their project topic. This project will also be presented as a poster at the Midyear Clinical Meeting and a formal presentation at the Great Lakes Residency Conference in April or equivalent as determined by the residency program. Upon completion of the residency project, the resident will have more self-confidence in data analysis, time management, and presentation skills.

Elective Rotations

• Advanced Ambulatory Care
  • This elective five week rotation will allow the residents to continue to gain experience and fine-tune their skills in the ambulatory care setting. During this elective learning experience, the resident will continue to provide exceptional patient care in our Medication Management Clinic and be a medication resource in the outpatient setting for our VIMCare clinic.
• Advanced Critical Care
  • During the advanced critical care learning experience, our residents will spend five more weeks focusing their patient reviews, interventions, therapeutic medication monitoring, and counselling on patients in our intensive care unit. This rotation will delve deeper into the pharmacotherapy and disease states associated with patients requiring critical care. The resident will spearhead any pharmacy interventions during the daily interdisciplinary rounds and continue to act as the medication expert on this team.
• Advanced Internal Medicine
  • During this five week elective learning experience, the residents will continue to develop important skills designed to pull knowledge from previous rotations including Internal Medicine, Critical Care, and Infectious Disease. This experience will allow the residents to round directly with a hospitalist and serve as a medication information resource to them in addition to managing consults, medications, and counselling on their respective patient care units.
• Cardiology
  • This newest CRH rotation learning experience will have our residents monitor, intervene upon, and make recommendations for patients requiring cardiac care. The resident will counsel applicable patients on high risk medications, heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, and encourage compliance. Residents will also lead cardiac focused topic discussions as well as give a formal presentation to the cardiology staff.
• Transitions of Care
  • The elective transitions of care rotation will allow residents to work closely with physicians, nurses, case managers, and therapists primarily on our rehabilitation unit. During this rotation, the residents will use their knowledge gained from internal medicine and review geriatric patient charts to assess for appropriate medication usage according to Beer’s Criteria as well as START/STOPP (Screening Tool to Alert Doctors to Right Treatment and Screening Tool of Older Persons’ potentially inappropriate Prescriptions) criteria. Discharge educations and in-services may also be required.
• Emergency Medicine
  • This five week elective rotation is focused on furthering the resident’s emergency medicine knowledge base. During this rotation, the resident will likely encounter a diverse patient population with a variety of disease states. The resident will work with physicians, advance practice nurse practitioners, nurses, respiratory therapists, case managers, and technicians and will serve as a medication expert to this emergency department healthcare team.
• Informatics and Automation
  • During the informatics and automation five week learning experience, the residents will obtain a basic understanding of automation devices (including automated dispensing cabinets), pharmacy systems, pharmacy tools, and educate staff as appropriate on any changes or updates. The resident will apply their knowledge to enhance computer applications to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the pharmacy system and automation devices.
• Teaching Experience (Butler University)
  • This optional six month longitudinal learning experience at Butler University will provide the resident with opportunities to develop teaching skills.  Residents who participate in this learning experience will spend one-half day per week at Butler. Time will also be required for class preparation or student assignment evaluations.  Residents are assigned to a teaching mentor at Butler, and opportunities for didactic lecture and student precepting may occur. 
• Teaching Certificate (Purdue University)
  • This is a 10 month elective rotation through Purdue University that will continue to build on the resident’s teaching skills and precepting experience.