1. What types of experience could be gained in this residency?
Residents have a variety of opportunities to sharpen their presentation skills during the residency year. Typically, these experiences include a local AHEC continuing education lecture, research presentation at the Southeastern Residency Conference (SERC), poster presentations at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting, and didactic lectures for pharmacy school students. In addition, residents are expected to precept fourth year pharmacy students on several core rotations. As a general rule, preceptors will make every effort to work with residents to help them achieve additional experience in areas that will benefit them as practicing pharmacists or help them to matriculate into additional post-graduate programs.

2. What types of projects do residents complete?
At PCMH, we try to help our residents identify projects that are not only interesting to them, but ones that are also relevant and pertinent to our department. To do this, we seek regular input from our pharmacy staff for project ideas and solicit ideas from the new residents. During the residents’ orientation month, the residency director and residents work together to select projects that are mutually beneficial. In addition to those projects required by ASHP, residents also have the opportunity to complete Medication Use Evaluations (MUE), longitudinal projects in pharmacy management and other non-traditional types of projects, such as those involving informatics.

3. What professional meetings are residents able to attend?
Residents are expected to attend the North Carolina Association of Pharmacist (NCAP) Fall meeting, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear meeting, as well as the Southeastern Residency Conference (SERC). There may be additional opportunities in the future to attend ACCP or other national meetings.

4. What are the staffing requirements of the residency?
The staffing portion of the residency requires that each resident staff approximately 32 hours per month. At PCMH, this is accomplished by staffing every third weekend and one evening shift every two to three weeks.

5. What have previous residents done post-residency?
Previous PCMH residents have accepted positions in other large teaching hospitals, have continued their education in specialty residency and/or fellowship programs and obtained positions in academia. Other residents have chosen to continue their careers at Pitt County Memorial Hospital as clinical/staff pharmacists.

6. What are you looking for in a potential candidate?
An ideal PCMH residency candidate possesses high academic standing and demonstrates commitment and ambition in their endeavors outside of the classroom. Candidates should have a positive attitude and exude a strong desire to grow and achieve their career goals.

7. How are residents selected?
All potential candidates are required to submit an application packet each year. Upon review by the residency director and coordinator, interviews are granted and conducted during the month of February. Residency preceptors, departmental administrators, current residents and clinical/staff pharmacists interview resident candidates. Once the interviews are complete, each candidate is evaluated and ranked by the interview committee. Final rankings are submitted to the ASHP Resident Matching Program.

8. How is the resident’s year organized?
The resident’s year is organized based on the requirements set forth by ASHP. The year is divided into two major components: 4 months of required experiences and 8 months of elective experiences. Each experience is approximately four to six weeks in duration with the option to repeat previous experiences if the resident wishes to gain additional knowledge in a specific area. Presentations, projects, and meetings are interspersed throughout the year as best fits with each resident’s schedule. In order to maintain flexibility and to allow each resident the opportunity to make schedule adjustments during the year, rotations are initially planned for the first 6 months only. Following reassessment and evaluation, the final 6 months are planned in November-December of the residency year.