PGY1-2 Residency: Medication-Use Safety and Policy

Inova is pleased to offer a Medication-Use Safety and Policy PGY1-2 residency. The resident will be begin the 24 month journey at Inova Fairfax Hospital and then be positioned at the system office with rotations, as well as connection to all locations.

PGY2 Residency Purpose

PGY2 pharmacy residency programs build on Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) education and PGY1 pharmacy residency programs to continue to advance the development of clinical pharmacists in specialized areas of practice. PGY2 residencies provide residents with opportunities to function independently as practitioners by utilizing accumulated experience and knowledge. The residents in PGY2 programs can be integrated into both into the provision of patient care or other advanced practice settings. Residents who successfully complete an accredited PGY2 pharmacy residency are prepared for advanced patient care, academic, or other specialized positions along with further certifications as available. 

Program Overview

The PGY1/PGY2 Medication-Use Safety and Policy Residency at Inova Health System is a 24-month program. The resident develops strong clinical pharmacy and acute care operational skills during the PGY1 year at the Inova Fairfax Medical Campus and builds on this core foundation during the PGY2 year at Inova Health System, a 5-hospital health system in northern Virginia. During the PGY1 year, residents will complete all requirements of the PGY1 Pharmacy Residency Program at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus while being introduced to the medication-use safety and policy practice area through elective rotations and related opportunities.

During the PGY2 year, the resident will learn to create, develop and assist in driving medication-use safety and policy initiatives across the Inova Health System. The residency is designed to prepare the resident to practice in a variety of health care settings including but not limited to inpatient and ambulatory care. The resident will develop advanced skills in formulary management, drug information, research, and medication safety. The program also provides comprehensive training and leadership opportunities in medication utilization, drug shortages, manuscript writing, and scholarly publication along with advanced skill training in medication-use policy and analytics. Additional opportunities exist in the PGY2 year to participate with the System Multidisciplinary Medication Safety Committee, System Patient Safety Team, and system Analytics team. The resident will be offered the chance to receive training in safety coaching in order to support fellow staff and residents experiencing stressful or traumatic patient related events as part of the pharmacy peer support system at Inova.

PGY1 Program Design

The format of PGY1 MUSP year will mirror that of a PGY1 Acute Care Pharmacy Resident at Inova Fairfax Medical Center. The PGY1 MUSP will complete the same longitudinal activities as a PGY1 Acute Care and be required to complete the same core rotations. The two programs diverge with respect to electives – PGY1 MUSP residents will complete 1 Stewardship Experience and 1 MUSP-Focused elective, accounting for 2 of 3 elective slots. In addition, the PGY1 MUSP resident participates in approximately monthly topic discussions both internally (POD) and externally (MUSP Safety Collaboration).

PGY1 Rotations

Visit the PhORCAS website

Program Description – PGY2 Medication-Use Safety and Policy Residency

Medication reliability and safety are integral to the provision of optimal pharmaceutical care, and the Inova pharmacy departments continually review medication incident reports, adverse drug events and medication errors to identify potential areas for improvement of systems. 

The Medication Safety Officer is tasked with overseeing the safe medication practices across the system in partnership not only with the pharmacy teams, but also with the providers, nursing teams as well as allied healthcare partners, The scope of work is not only in the acute care setting, of which Inova has five, but also in the ambulatory space as well as the retail setting. Since the resident will be working directly with and under the auspices of the Medication Safety Officer, there are ample opportunities for the resident to impact patient care across a wide spectrum of disciplines and settings.

The resident will have the opportunity to experience Information Systems technological impact to medication use, safety officers' roles, as well as data analytics and report development and interpretation.

One of the longitudinal experiences that the resident will do to achieve their PGY2 certificate is writing for publications in multiple venues as well as a research component where the expectation is an IRB protocol submission to the active system IRB.

Committees and interdisciplinary team work across the span of the health system will allow the resident a robust and varied year of experience. The resident will also have a teaching experience as Inova serves as an Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience and Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience sites for pharmacy students from both the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy and the Dunn School of Pharmacy at Shenandoah University.