Delnor Hospital PGY1 Residency Program

ASHP Program Code: 41089
National Matching Service Code: 275013
Accreditation Status: Accredited

Director of Pharmacy: Marlo Larson, RPh, MBA
Program Director: Jacqueline Junker, PharmD, BCPS
Email: jacqueline.junker@nm.org

Residency Program Fast Facts

  • Duration/Type: 12 month traditional PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Residency
  • Number of Positions: 2
  • Application deadline: January 5th, 2025
  • Starting date: Late June
  • Estimated stipend: Approx. $52,000
  • Interview required: Yes
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Program Overview

Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital (Delnor) is a Magnet®-recognized 159 bed comprehensive healthcare facility recognized for excelling in safety, outcomes, and the patient experience. Delnor is one of ten Northwestern Memorial Healthcare Corporation hospitals. This community teaching hospital offers general medicine, cardiac, surgical, maternity, critical care, oncology, and emergency service medical programs, outpatient oncology and family practice clinics on campus, and a Family Medicine residency program. Pharmacy services provide IPPE and APPE rotations annually for pharmacy students from several local Colleges of Pharmacy.

The pharmacy practice model at Delnor is a patient-centered approach to care. Every pharmacist in our department has both clinical and operational responsibilities. Clinical staff pharmacists rotate through day, swing, evening shifts, and weekends to enable the provision of continuous high-level care to our patients.

Clinical services provided by our pharmacists include:

  • Warfarin and heparin dosing
  • Aminoglycoside and vancomycin dosing
  • Admission medication histories and reconciliation
  • Discharge medication review and counseling
  • Pre-operative antibiotic surgical prophylaxis ordering
  • Antimicrobial stewardship review
  • Oncology services (inpatient and outpatient)
  • Cardiac arrest, stroke, and massive transfusion protocol response

Pharmacy practice residency graduates will:

  • Learn to be a confident practitioner with the expertise, professional judgment, and values of an experienced clinician
  • Develop problem-solving abilities in a wide variety of practice areas
  • Exert a unique professional influence to obtain higher level goals in the patient's best interest
  • Understand the importance of evidence-based medicine
  • Learn how to critique and apply available literature and design and execute studies to solve relevant pharmacy-related issues
  • Be dedicated to personal education and to the education of others to improve the safety of medication use
  • Serve as a leader in developing pharmacy practice
  • Serve as preceptor to both IPPE and APPE students

The program begins with a four-week Pharmacy Practice orientation during which the residents will review department policies and procedures, become certified in ACLS, and review key longitudinal responsibilities. Residents will also be trained to independently practice within the pharmacy department. In addition to the Pharmacy Practice orientation, there are six required rotations and three elective rotations that are to be completed throughout the year. Each rotation experience spans over five weeks, with the option of making certain rotations longitudinal experiences that extend over the course of the residency year.

During orientation, residents coordinate preliminary rotation schedules with fellow residents and the residency program director. Most rotations are offered throughout the year and residents have flexibility to change their schedule anytime during the residency year. It is our goal to individualize the learning experience based on each resident's interests. Certain advanced experiences have prerequisites, for example, residents must complete the antimicrobial stewardship rotation prior to participating in advanced ID rotations.

Team based precepting: Delnor operates as a team-based integrated pharmacy practice model. Each rotation has a designated primary preceptor who coordinates the rotation experience. Residents usually spend time with multiple pharmacists on the same clinical team throughout the month. Residents have the opportunity to experience different precepting styles and learn from more than one preceptor.

Layered learning model: Delnor has developed a layered learning model, mimicking the medical model of active learning. Learning at Delnor is handled in a layered fashion, from attending level clinical pharmacist preceptor to resident to student. During many rotations, residents will have the opportunity to teach and mentor pharmacy students.

Evaluation: The Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital PGY1 Pharmacy Residency Program utilizes PharmAcademic to evaluate the progress of residents. Preceptors and residents are required to complete evaluations for each rotation experience. Residents also receive both formal and informal feedback from preceptors throughout the rotation. Finally, one-on-one quarterly progress discussions are scheduled with the Residency Program Director (RPD) and each resident.

Rotations

Required rotations may be completed at any time throughout the year with the exception of the Pharmacy Practice Orientation, which is always completed in June/July for PGY1 residents.

Required rotations include:

  • Pharmacy Practice/Orientation
  • Project
  • Administration (Operational or Clinical)
  • General Medicine
  • Critical Care
  • Antimicrobial Stewardship
  • Outpatient Hematology/Oncology
  • Transitions of Care (Longitudinal)

Current elective rotations include:

  • Infectious Disease
  • Administration (Operational or Clinical)
  • Advanced General Medicine
  • Advanced Critical Care
  • Advanced Critical Care/Emergency Medicine
  • Advanced Antimicrobial Stewardship
  • Advanced Administration
  • Cardiology
  • Ambulatory Care-Oncology (Longitudinal)

Committee Participation

Residents will actively participate in three hospital committees throughout the course of the year. Residents will be responsible for committee meeting minutes as well as participate in other committee initiatives as needed. Committees the residents will participate in include:

  • Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee plus Medication Safety Committee for 6 months
  • Antimicrobial Stewardship Sub-committee for 6 months

Residents will also have the opportunity to participate in professional organization committees with member pharmacists on staff. Professional organization committee availability varies each year. There are many different committees within professional organizations (ICHP, ASHP, ACCP, SIDP, etc).

Additional Activities

Research: Residents are required to complete one quality improvement project or clinical research project. This project will be an independent project, with mentorship from clinical pharmacists and support from the Residency Advisory Committee. Residents have the freedom to choose any project, define their own research questions, and work with their resident mentor. The research protocol and methods will be presented at the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting in a poster format and the results will be presented at the ICHP Illinois Pharmacy Residency Conference as a formal presentation.

Resident presentations: PGY1 Residents are expected to present a minimum of 8 presentations to pharmacy staff, medical residents, nurses, physicians, or other clinicians throughout the residency year. Residents can choose any topic, and presentations can be formatted as patient case presentations, Journal Clubs, or In-services. Residents will receive timely feedback from preceptors and the RPD.

Meetings: Residents will attend the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting and the ICHP Illinois Pharmacy Residency Conference. Registration and the majority of expenses for these professional meetings are reimbursed and the use of personal time off is not necessary. Residents are encouraged to attend other conferences of their interest, and opportunities can be arranged with the RPD and preceptors.

Required membership: Residents are required to be a member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists (ICHP).

Advisor: By the end of July, residents will be assigned one clinical pharmacist as their year-long professional mentor. The role of mentor is to provide support and guidance to the resident throughout the year.

Precepting opportunities: Each year, pharmacy students representing different colleges of pharmacy complete IPPE and APPE rotations at Delnor. Residents have ample opportunities to serve as an informal and formal preceptor to students throughout the year. The Delnor pharmacy department strongly promotes the layered learning model. Residents are expected to lead topic discussions and serve as a mentor for students. All residents are required to serve as the primary preceptor for one APPE student during the second half of the residency year.

Other activities may include:

  • Quarterly resident journal club/professional development discussion
  • Meetings with residents from other NM hospitals or other local programs
  • Monthly RPD meetings
  • Advanced cardiac life support training
  • Participation in resident group service projects/volunteering

Service Requirements

Clinical staffing is an integral part of the development of a clinical pharmacist.

Residents will staff two 8-hour shifts every third weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and one evening weekday shift every third week throughout the residency year.

Residents are required to work one major winter holiday during the residency year (Thanksgiving or Christmas) and one minor holiday (Labor Day or Memorial Day).

Benefits

  • Stipend: As above, paid biweekly; residents have the opportunity to work additional shifts at pharmacist pay-rate outside of their residency requirement.
  • Vacation: The resident is allotted Paid Time Off (PTO) that is accrued at a rate determined by the Human Resources Department and is accrued on a bi-weekly basis and cannot be used in advance of accrual. PTO encompasses both vacation and sick time (scheduled and unscheduled PTO, respectively). Prior approval by the RPD is required for scheduled PTO.
  • Insurance: Residents will receive a comprehensive medical plan as a regular Northwestern Medicine employee which includes prescription, dental, and vision benefits.
  • Workspace: All residents will have an individual desk, personal laptop and desk phone. White coat, business cards, and other office supplies are also provided to the resident.
  • Library access: All residents have free access to online resources provided by Northwestern Medicine which includes access to a large collection of medical journals.
  • Extended leaves of absence: We understand emergent situations may occur during residency year. Any resident requiring extended leaves of absence can discuss their circumstance with the RPD. All decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.

How to Apply

Eligible applicants include:

  • Graduates or candidates for graduation of a Doctor of Pharmacy program from an ACPE-accredited school or college of pharmacy
  • Legal working status in United States to cover the entire period of residency training (we are unable to sponsor visas for residents)
  • Eligibility for pharmacist licensure in the state of Illinois (residents matched to our program shall obtain Illinois Pharmacist Licensure within 90 days of residency initiation)
  • Hold an Illinois pharmacy technician license if not registered as a pharmacist in the state of Illinois prior to residency program start date
  • All interested candidates shall register with both PhORCAS and the ASHP Resident Matching Program. Completed PhORCAS profile with the following items submitted to PhORCAS directly:
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • Letter of Intent
    • Three letters of Recommendation
      • Reference letter writers should be preceptors, employers, professors or other professionals who can evaluate your skills and characters
      • Reference writers are asked to complete the standard reference form within PhORCAS. (We do NOT require additional narrative letter. Please do NOT mail or email separate reference letters to us as they will NOT be considered.)
    • Pharmacy School Transcripts