Pharmacy Residency Expansion Grant goes to U.Va. Health System
The University of Virginia Health System’s PGY1 Residency Program has been selected as one of 10 PGY1 or PGY2 programs nationwide to receive a $40,000 Pharmacy Residency Expansion Grant. The grant program was established in 2011 by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Research and Education Foundation.
Michelle McCarthy directs the U.Va. Health System PGY1 Residency Program, which began in 1991. The program has expanded since then to include PGY2 residencies in drug information, critical care, health system pharmacy administration, oncology, pharmacy informatics and solid organ transplant. Rafael Saenz, pharmacy director for the U.Va. Health System, also serves as assistant dean for VCU School of Pharmacy’s U.Va. Division.
The 12 current U.Va. pharmacy residents include two VCU alumni, Lindsay Donohue and Andrew Whitman.
Congratulated by VCU School of Pharmacy Dean Joseph T. DiPiro on the grant, Saenz expressed his gratitude and said, “This is a very dynamic time here at U.Va.!”
According to the ASHP Foundation, pharmacy residency training is crucial to new pharmacists, but there is a shortage of pharmacy residency programs in this country. Residencies can help better prepare pharmacists who now are expected to play a larger role in patient care and to assume responsibility for medication therapy management as members of interdisciplinary health care teams.
In 2014, according to ASHP, more than 1,000 pharmacy residency programs graduated nearly 3,100 PGY1 and PGY1 residents. But more than 1,700 applicants did not match a program because of the lack of available positions.
ASHP Foundation’s Pharmacy Residency Expansion Grant Program is supported by lead grants from Amgen Inc. and Merck Inc. and proceeds from 20 health-care corporations. ASHP Foundation CEO Stephen J. Allen said, “Residency training is critical to advancing pharmacy practice models in hospitals and health systems. … 67 pharmacists in as many institutions have now completed or will participate in residency training this year who would not otherwise have had this life-changing opportunity.”
Also receiving 2015 PGY1 or PGY2 program expansion grants were Boston Medical Center; Fairview Maple Grove (Minnesota) Oncology Infusion Program; Georgia Regents Medical Center in Augusta; Grady Health System in Atlanta; Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah; Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, N.C.; Shenandoah University in Winchester; University of Colorado; and University of Rochester Medical Center.
The VCU Health System’s PGY1 Residency Program received an ASHP Foundation Pharmacy Residency Expansion Grant in 2013.
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