Skip to Content

Pharmacy Residency Program

The Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Dayton VAMC) in Dayton, Ohio is a comprehensive tertiary health care center, teaching hospital, and research facility. The Dayton VAMC has strong affiliations with Wright State University-Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University-College of Nursing and all Colleges of Pharmacy in Ohio.

Postgraduate Year One (PGY-1) Pharmacy Residency Program

The Medical Center operates 161 long term care (LTC) beds, 91 acute care beds and 99 MHRRTP (the DOM) beds for a total of 351 beds. The Medical Center operates community-based outpatient clinics in Ohio: Middletown, Springfield, Lima and Richmond Indiana. 

We will be participating the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting in Las Vegas in December 2022. We will also participate in: Ohio Society of Health-System Pharmacists Residency showcase on November 5 and the VA Virtual pharmacy residency showcase on December 8 from Noon – 2PM EST, see Teams invite below.

PGY1 Pharmacy Residency

The PGY-1 Residency in Pharmacy at the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center has been designed with the standards of The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). This is a traditional program emphasizing inpatient and ambulatory care.

The required competency areas, goals, and objectives for PGY1 Pharmacy Residencies can be found by copying and pasting the following link: PGY1 Required Competency Areas (ashp.org)

There are two resident positions available.

Purpose Statement: PGY1 residency programs build upon Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) education and outcomes to develop pharmacist practitioners with knowledge, skills, and abilities as defined in the educational competency areas, goals, and objectives. Residents who successfully complete PGY1 residency programs will be skilled in diverse patient care, practice management, leadership, and education, and be prepared to provide patient care, seek board certification in pharmacotherapy (i.e., BCPS), and pursue advanced education and training opportunities including postgraduate year two (PGY2) residencies.

Program Description: The residency program is designed to prepare residents for acute care or ambulatory care positions, adjunct faculty positions, or PGY2 training. The Dayton VAMC is a tertiary care academic facility that provides the capability to involve each resident in patient care, project management and administration exposure.  

Residents will learn to perform self-monitoring and demonstrate leadership through contributing to performance improvement. In addition, residents will be encouraged to develop an approach to the profession that can lead to life-long learning and career satisfaction.

Program Governance: The Residency Advisory Committee (RAC) governs the residency program. It is comprised of all preceptors as well as members of management leadership. The Committee is chaired by the Residency Program Director. The Residency Advisory Committee meet at least quarterly to review and discuss the progress of the resident(s) and program development. Interactive feedback is utilized in preparation of further residency activities. The RAC make modifications to the resident (s) schedule as recommended via feedback.

Appointment Period: Twelve months, starting end of June or July 1st each year.

Contacts:
Rachel Chandra, PharmD, MPH, FASHP
PGY-1 Program Director
4100 West 3rd Street, Dayton, Ohio 45428
Phone: Ext 1407
Email: rachel.chandra@va.gov

Robert (Tony) Wootton, PharmD, BCPS
Chief, Pharmacy Services
4100 West 3rd Street, Dayton, Ohio 45428
Phone: Ext 2244
Email: Robert.wootton@va.gov

 

Application process:

PGY1 positions are matched through PhORCAS. Application materials must be submitted using PhORCAS by January 8. Applications submitted outside the PhORCAS system will not be accepted. Required application materials include: curriculum vitae, letter of intent, and three letters of recommendation. The Postgraduate Year One (PGY1) Pharmacy Practice Residency NMS Code is 171713. If selected, an interview is required and is usually scheduled for late January or February. 

We encourage applicants to customize their cover letter to our program. Applicants should expand on why they are interested in our program, career goals and what makes them a strong candidate.

The applicant should have three individuals complete the standardized reference template in PhORCAS. We recommend each applicant select individuals who can comment on their clinical knowledge and/or work in a pharmacy setting.

Requirements for Applicants:

According to ASHP applicants to all pharmacy residencies must be a graduate or candidate for graduation of an Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) accredited degree program (or one in process of pursing accreditation) or have a Foreign Pharmacy Graduation Equivalency Committee (FPGEC) certificate from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP).

The Department of Veterans Affairs adheres to all federal Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action policies. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA)/Office of Academic Affiliations (OAA) oversees all clinical health professions training programs. To participate in training at a VA you will receive a Federal Appointment. However, to be appointed you must be eligible. 

Applicants to the Dayton VAMC PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency Program will have maintained a pharmacy GPA >3.0 or pass/fail equivalent. Applicants must be a U.S. citizen by the application deadline.

This residency site agrees no person at this site will solicit, accept, or use any ranking related information from any applicant.

Licensure: The resident is required to obtain a pharmacist license upon entry into the residency program, but by August 31st at the very latest. Individuals not licensed by August 31st will be placed on a customized plan to allow for licensure at the earliest possible date. An Ohio licensure is not required but encouraged to allow for non-VA rotations and to maximize learning experiences.

Application deadline: January 8

Personal interviews with a 10-minute presentation are required. Virtual interviews will be conducted this year using Microsoft Teams. All applicants will be notified of their interview status no later than February 14.

For additional information, address all correspondence to:

Rachel Chandra, PharmD, MPH, FASHP
PGY-1 Program Director
4100 West 3rd Street, Dayton, Ohio 45428
Phone: Ext 1407
Email: rachel.chandra@va.gov

Orientation

The orientation learning experience (LE) purpose is to help orient the resident to all aspects of pharmacy service and introduce them to the various personnel and services provided. It covers the residency's purpose and practice environment, the appropriate accreditation standards, competencies, goals and objectives. The design of the residency program including all program requirements will be discussed. A description of all possible learning experiences will be provided along with the evaluation strategy. The residency manual will be presented along with policies and terminology.

This LE includes extensive computer training, intensive hands-on training, and ample training for inpatient pharmacist staffing on weekends and evenings. There is a general orientation to outpatient processing  and inpatient processing, including filling of prescriptions, processing of narcotics for both inpatient and outpatient areas, sterile compounding and USP requirements, unit dose repackaging, compounding and barcoding, as well as technician oversight. Orientation includes discussions and training for both inpatient and outpatient areas. The orientation also includes ACLS and BLS certification, introduction to Formulary Management and Quality Management areas and an introduction to the automation used throughout the medical center.

Acute Care

Internal Medicine (IM I) is a required, four-week (minimum) learning experience at the Dayton VA Medical Center. There are approximately 63 acute care beds within the facility.  There are four IM teaching teams which are responsible for a maximum of 32 patients per day.  Each of the teaching teams includes an attending physician, a senior medical resident, a medical intern, frequently medical students (MSIII or MSIV), and occasional podiatry intern. 

The clinical pharmacy specialist on the team is responsible for ensuring safe and effective medication use for all patients admitted to the team. Routine responsibilities include: reconciling medications for all patients admitted to the team, addressing formal consults for non-formulary drug requests, and therapeutic drug monitoring. The pharmacist will also provide drug information and education to healthcare professionals, as well as to patients and caregivers.

Ambulatory Care (i.e., Patient Aligned Care Teams-PACT)

PACT is a required, 4-6 week learning experience at the Dayton VA Medical Center. Primary Care Clinical Pharmacists work under the PACT (Patient Aligned Care Team) model. PACT is a partnership of the Veteran, family, and health care teams, established through continuous relationships and provide an optimal healing environment, in order to improve health outcomes and the Veteran's experience of care.

The primary responsibility of the Clinical Pharmacy Specialist is the provision of evidence-based pharmaceutical care services through both direct and indirect interaction with patients and providers. Clinical pharmacist in PACT promote and manage drug therapy based on current clinical knowledge that is consistent with policies and protocols established at the local, VISN and national  levels as well as practice guidelines. The Clinical Pharmacy Specialist functions as part of the PACT Team and manages an assigned panel of patients, to support continuity of care. Along with these services, PACT pharmacists provide drug information and education to healthcare professionals as well and patients and caregivers.

Psychiatry

Psychiatry is a required, four week long learning experience.  The purpose of this clinical experience is to  the pharmacy resident with the knowledge and skills necessary to care for patients with psychiatric and neuropsychiatric disorders.  For the inpatient experience the pharmacy resident will work as part of an interdisciplinary team focusing on improving patient care, optimizing medication therapy, and providing medication expertise to patients and healthcare professionals. Residents will participate in daily treatment team meetings, rounds, contribute to the development of treatment plans, and provide evidence-based, patient-centered treatment for chronic mental illness in all degrees of complexity.

Residents will be given responsibility for direct patient care, progressively increasing toward independence at a pace determined by both the resident and preceptors.  Residents will work in the mental health outpatient clinics, serious mental illness clinic and depression clinic providing medication therapy management, monitoring plans, psychoeducation and supportive counseling.  The resident assumes responsibility for providing evidence-based pharmacotherapy management and focuses on recovery-based interventions to improve patient outcomes.

Practice Management

This is a required, longitudinal learning. The resident will work with several administrative preceptors throughout the residency year – the time required with each preceptor will vary based on needs of the institution and workload. In having this model, it is designed to mimic real world administrative workload. This rotation is a combination of the broad areas of administration and medication safety & regulatory compliance. This rotation has several sections of overlap across the respective areas listed above and as a result is now a combined rotation to increase efficiency with time and evaluations.

This rotation will expose residents to patient safety issues and regulatory compliance within the Department of Veterans Affairs.  Some of the areas the resident will focus on include but are not limited to internal and external quality standards, quality improvement, legal, regulatory, safety, and accreditation requirements, adverse drug event and medication error reporting, and technology in medication safety. 

Anticoagulation

This is a required, four week learning experience. The resident will work with the Anticoagulation Clinic clinical staff throughout the residency year in completing this rotation.  There are approximately 1,400 patients in the anticoagulation clinic. The clinic team includes: several clinical pharmacy specialists and 2 clinical pharmacy technicians.  The clinic staff is all within the pharmacy department. The clinic is a consult service and any medical issues outside of the scope of the clinical pharmacist are directed to patient’s primary care physician. Emergent issues are directed to the emergency room.

Pharmacists identify and resolve medication-related problems for all outpatients who have anticoagulants provided by the Dayton VA. Anticoagulation include warfarin, low molecular weight heparins and direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC). The clinical pharmacy specialists on the team are responsible for ensuring safe and effective anticoagulation for all patients consulted to the clinic, including review of all patient charts, collaboration with pharmacy to assure timely medication availability; education of patients and their family members, education of physicians and nurses, and education of pharmacy trainees; and participation in organizational, pharmacy department and nursing unit-based medication policy and continuous quality improvement committees.

Heart Failure

Heart Failure (HF) is an ambulatory care, longitudinal learning experience. The outpatient cardiology clinics consist of cardiologists, nurse practitioners, cardiology fellows, medicine residents, dietary, clinical pharmacists, behavioral health psychology fellows, registered nurses. This elective is designed for a resident with high maturity level and has the ability to work independently amongst a high functioning interdisciplinary team. Commonly referred disease states include HF, anti-arrhythmic monitoring, angina, and Atrial Fibrillation. Due to the observed common link with increased hospitalizations of HF and lung disease, COPD education will be required to compliment HF clinic. During this learning experience, residents will collaborate with the interdisciplinary team in the management of all patients within the clinic. 

Medication Use Evaluation/Major Project

A Medication Use Evaluation (MUE) and a major project are required learning experiences. MUE encompasses the goals and objectives of drug use evaluation in its broadest application, with an emphasis on improving patient outcomes. MUE will be applied to a medication or therapeutic class, disease state or condition, a medication-use process (prescribing, preparing and dispensing, administering, and monitoring), or specific outcomes.

Major project teaches the resident project management skills. It requires the development of an idea into a feasible project, writing a proposal, obtaining the necessary approvals, implementing a project, analyzing the results, writing a manuscript suitable for publication and completing the documents required for manuscript submission to the selected journal. The project manuscript is the culmination of the year-long project which is evaluated throughout the year in the longitudinal experience.

Staffing Commitment

The resident will work with the Inpatient & Outpatient pharmacy staff throughout the year in completing this rotation. Each resident will staff every other Saturday & Sunday, and additional staffing based on resident’s need for inpatient/outpatient staffing to meet the LE goals/objectives. Residents will switch their designated weekends in December to gain exposure to different pharmacy personnel. The resident will be responsible for notifying the Inpatient Pharmacy Supervisor as early as possible to discuss any weekend switches to this schedule.  The longitudinal Staffing rotation will provide exposure for the resident to the daily functioning operations of the inpatient and outpatient pharmacy. The resident will gain an understanding of the roles the pharmacist and the technician play, as well as the systems and technology used in the pharmacy.

Integrative Medicine

Integrative Medicine is a four-week long learning experience.  The purpose of this clinical experience is to equip the pharmacy resident with the knowledge and skills necessary to care for patients with pain by using a comprehensive, multicultural and integrated approach to pain management that reduces pain and suffering for patients experiencing acute and chronic pain. This includes a comprehensive pain assessment as appropriate to the patient's condition and ongoing pain re-assessment and follow-up.  The pharmacy resident will work as part of an interdisciplinary team focusing on improving patient care, optimizing medication therapy, and providing medication expertise to patients and healthcare professionals. Residents will participate in treatment team meetings, contribute to the development of treatment plans, and provide evidence-based, patient-centered treatment to manage pain (acute and chronic) in all degrees of complexity.

Teaching and Academia; Precepting

This is a longitudinal learning experience in Academia completed at Cedarville University or University of Cincinnati. It’s designed to prepare pharmacy residents for successful didactic and clinical teaching. This program will provide the resident a broad understanding of issues in pharmacy education and opportunities to enhance their teaching skills. It has been constructed for residents to gain knowledge in educational theory, develop experience in teaching in various instructional settings, and document and reflect upon their teaching activities. It is the expectation that when a resident begins the Teaching Certificate Program, they will commit to the entire program which culminates in receiving a certificate of accomplishment. Residents will have several didactic sessions throughout the residency year.

In addition to the Teaching Certificate, residents will be involved in a variety of teaching experiences throughout their residency year including precepting students and facilitating student learning experiences in critical literature evaluations through journal clubs, topic discussions and patient presentations. The resident will also be doing formal presentations and ACPE Continuing Education Programs for the pharmacy.

Electives

Some elective learning experiences include infectious disease, Endocrinology, Home-Based Primary Care, Long-Term Care, Women’s Health/Academic Detailing, and Teaching rotation. Residents have 3-4 months of elective experiences in the second six months of the residency year. Some electives do not include pharmacists and will be offered in the last quarter of the residency year.

If scheduling allows, residents are allowed to repeat required/elective learning experiences for additional training.

Residents Benefits

The resident in our program is considered a federal full-time employee with a salary and benefit package. Salary is paid by the VA Office of Academic affiliations and rates may increase depending on the current year allocation rate. In addition, residents accrue annual/sick leave and other benefits,

Salary (stipend)
Stipend is ~ $42,000 for PGY-1 Residents

Health benefits
Information about federal employment benefits can be accessed at opm.gov.

Benefits include:

  • Government health care medical plan.
  • Option for dental and life insurance.
  • Basic Life Support/Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support 
  • Resident is not vested and does not have a 401K matching fund benefit during their first year of employment.

Holidays
There are 13 paid holidays during the year.

Annual leave
Four hours per pay period (13 days per year).

Sick leave
Four hours per pay period (13 days per year).

Maximum time away from the residency program
37 days per 52 week training

Travel stipends
Will be provided as available to attend at least one professional meeting, which may include the ASHP Midyear Conference and/or a local Residency Conference for all residents.