Now I'm a resident...?!

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For those past or current pharmacy residents, do you have any advice for those about to embark on residency or any tips you would like to provide on how to be efficient.. any pitfalls to watch out for? interesting anecdotes appreciated

No takers???? Eee.... Am I missing the other section of sdn for current residents?????

Originally Posted by nerdswagg88

No takers???? Eee.... Am I missing the other section of sdn for current residents?????

No, but there are plenty of posts on this topic. Use the search.

Originally Posted by nerdswagg88

For those past or current pharmacy residents, do you have any advice for those about to embark on residency or any tips you would like to provide on how to be efficient.. any pitfalls to watch out for? interesting anecdotes appreciated

My recommendation is to front load as much of your projects (drug Infos, monographs, topic discussions, reasrch proposal, MUE) as possible. Things are slower in the first half, especially when waiting on IRB approval, but quickly ramps up once the main research gets approved. Drug info and MUE requests pop up intermittently, grab the early ones so you won't be competing for one with other residents closer to the end. So I wouldn't "ease yourself" into the residency, go full throttle ASAP.

You might be branded a workaholic at first, but later you get to sit back and watch your fellow residents stressing over getting things together just before the residency conference.

Sure will, any specific keywords to use...? Otherwise let me start sorting

Thank you! I'm super excited to get started but am not sure what/how to be most efficient in the beginning. That is excellent advice
So I've been sorting through the posts, also do you have any advice for working with med residents/attendings?

Originally Posted by nerdswagg88

So I've been sorting through the posts, also do you have any advice for working with med residents/attendings?

Be honest with what you know and don't know (many will take your recommendations verbatim), participate in topic discussions with them, etc

I consider myself highly organized but for some reason I struggled initially with managing all the simultaneous projects I had in residency. I recommend establishing an organization system right away.

Take responsibility for having a good experience. If you need more feedback, say so. If you need more guidance, ask for it. Don't put everything on your site, remember you are an employee.

Network as much as possible. Get business cards and emails and write notes to yourself about the person. I credit much of my success with getting to know people who could help me. And you can be a resource for them as well.

Originally Posted by xiphoid2010

My recommendation is to front load as much of your projects (drug Infos, monographs, topic discussions, reasrch proposal, MUE) as possible. Things are slower in the first half, especially when waiting on IRB approval, but quickly ramps up once the main research gets approved. Drug info and MUE requests pop up intermittently, grab the early ones so you won't be competing for one with other residents closer to the end. So I wouldn't "ease yourself" into the residency, go full throttle ASAP.

You might be branded a workaholic at first, but later you get to sit back and watch your fellow residents stressing over getting things together just before the residency conference.

This x100!!!

So...how worried should I be if the CA BOP decides to take their sweet time and I'm not RPh licensed by the deadline? It's technically a condition of employment but all I can really do is submit a complete packet and hope for the best.

ask your site. I wasn't licensed prior to starting. It was NBD.

Originally Posted by spacecowgirl

ask your site. I wasn't licensed prior to starting. It was NBD.

Yeah, I'm referring to getting an RPh license a few months in not right at the start (I have my intern license active).

I just see that most sites require licensure by September/October of your residency year so you can start knocking out staffing shifts. I figure if my papers are complete and in at a reasonable time and the BOP decides to pull a QA and delays my score release by a few weeks then really I had no control over that so it becomes a "what're you gonna do about it?" situation.

If anything I'll just catch up with staffing with no problems. I'll bring it up on day 1...our BOP is pretty notorious for having long processing times/delays.

I think most of your co-residents will be in the same boat. I'm sure there will be some sort of provision.

Originally Posted by KARM12

I think most of your co-residents will be in the same boat. I'm sure there will be some sort of provision.

Yes and no -- CA BOP prioritizes applications sent in bulk from schools of pharmacy within the state vs. individual applications. The advantage is between 14-21 days, so that could make the difference between meeting the deadline and not. Oh well.

How is everyone's first week going? (or 2nd for those of us lucky enough to start early haha)

Originally Posted by stumbleine88

How is everyone's first week going? (or 2nd for those of us lucky enough to start early haha)

zzzzzzzz

hospital orientation, "team building" exercises, clunking through benefit enrollment and computer access issues...learning the computer system and workflow.

"residency" won't really begin for at least a month.

Originally Posted by confettiflyer

zzzzzzzz

hospital orientation, "team building" exercises, clunking through benefit enrollment and computer access issues...learning the computer system and workflow.

"residency" won't really begin for at least a month.

What kind of team building?

Originally Posted by rxlea

What kind of team building?

I dunno, it's with other new hires, those ones that they make you mingle and ask questions to each other.

Originally Posted by confettiflyer

I dunno, it's with other new hires, those ones that they make you mingle and ask questions to each other.

If it was up to me, I'd take my team to play paintball

We're doing the same stuff. I forgot to make some coffee this morning and thought I was going to pass out from HR boredom.

Enjoy it while you can. Once ass kicking starts, you'll wish you time to be bored.

I made my resident meet with me yesterday about her research project. I gave her a list of about 15 different deadlines she needs to meet to complete it throughout the year. I freaked her out!

Originally Posted by KARM12

I made my resident meet with me yesterday about her research project. I gave her a list of about 15 different deadlines she needs to meet to complete it throughout the year. I freaked her out!

Too many residents are bad at drawing up a comprehensive time table for themselves. A little "you aint in kansa any more" is called for. At my residency conference, there were many that haven't finished collecting, data, haven't analyzed the data, had a data set of 1...

To residents: spend the first few days during your orientation period plotting out all the known deadlines onto a calendar, electronic or old fashioned paper. Add to it as things become more delineated. Leave margin for comfort (I left a 20% of margin, so my deadline is 20% earlier than the actual). Stick to the deadlines, don't make excuses to deviate (unless the world comes to an end or something).

Originally Posted by xiphoid2010

To residents: spend the first few days during your orientation period plotting out all the known deadlines onto a calendar, electronic or old fashioned paper. Add to it as things become more delineated. Leave margin for comfort (I left a 20% of margin, so my deadline is 20% earlier than the actual). Stick to the deadlines, don't make excuses to deviate (unless the world comes to an end or something).

Agree 100% with making and sticking to deadlines....honestly, it makes it easier on yourself in the end.

Originally Posted by KARM12

Agree 100% with making and sticking to deadlines....honestly, it makes it easier on yourself in the end.

I third this. Extensive planning makes life 100x easier during residency.

Originally Posted by confettiflyer

zzzzzzzz

hospital orientation, "team building" exercises, clunking through benefit enrollment and computer access issues...learning the computer system and workflow.

"residency" won't really begin for at least a month.

We have 2 months of orientation, where the second month is half inpt. staffing and half outpt. clinics, so I won't get to my rotations until September. At least we're starting the teaching certificate next week.

End of week 1 update: met with our resi coordinator/director about our projects. Deadlines were discussed...nothing new to me yet, already went through the paces of hypothesis formulation, IRB submissions, P&T deadlines, etc... last year.

Originally Posted by confettiflyer

End of week 1 update: met with our resi coordinator/director about our projects. Deadlines were discussed...nothing new to me yet, already went through the paces of hypothesis formulation, IRB submissions, P&T deadlines, etc... last year.

IRB Booooooooo

Week 1: orientation to EVERYTHING, gazillion deadlines, already chosen a research topic and will start hypothesis & submit proposal in 2 weeks. Will train for all of july, start staffing in august (pending licensure) and rotations start in august. Supposedly early commit occurs in october so i'm glad i'll be starting rotations in august!

One month orientation/training is pretty typical. Enjoy the slow month while you can and front load projects will pay off big time later.

For keeping track do time table, deadlines, events, I used a combo of MS outlook and google calendar. MS outlook is great because it allows you to share access with other residents RPD. So you can see what each of you got coming up, and if you need to swap staffing weekends, you know who's available. You can also copy over any events that you didn't mark down on your calendar.

You can't directly link it to show up on android phone though, so what you can do is export calendar from outlook and import it into google calendar. Do this once a month to keep it up to date and you should be able to avoid many unpleasant surprises.

For a while I thought straight clinical knowledge would be the most difficult aspect of residency...turns out it's deadline juggling and time management.

Usually when I hear that "time management" is difficult I just stare at someone and quietly roll my eyes. Now I sort of understand, haha

Originally Posted by xiphoid2010

One month orientation/training is pretty typical. Enjoy the slow month while you can and front load projects will pay off big time later.

For keeping track do time table, deadlines, events, I used a combo of MS outlook and google calendar. MS outlook is great because it allows you to share access with other residents RPD. So you can see what each of you got coming up, and if you need to swap staffing weekends, you know who's available. You can also copy over any events that you didn't mark down on your calendar.

You can't directly link it to show up on android phone though, so what you can do is export calendar from outlook and import it into google calendar. Do this once a month to keep it up to date and you should be able to avoid many unpleasant surprises.

I keep an old school paper calendar....I get extreme pleasure out of crossing off things I've done, lol.

Originally Posted by cycloketocaine

I keep an old school paper calendar....I get extreme pleasure out of crossing off things I've done, lol.

haha, i enjoy the dismiss button. In my head there's a drill sergeant voice going "DIS...MISSED!"

Originally Posted by rxlea

If it was up to me, I'd take my team to play paintball

Me too. You can quickly find out who is the leader in the group and who are the support staff. For example, I'm the guy you meet the day the project is assigned, you never see or hear from me until the day before the due date where you get an e-mail with my part of the .ppt. In paintball, I'd be the guy who breaks off from the rest of the group and snipes.

About the same, orientation, policies, procedures, and stafffing. I know this will be intense, especially staffing every other weekend, but is anyone else planning/considering moonlighting elsewhere? 4-10 hours a week.

Originally Posted by RX86

About the same, orientation, policies, procedures, and stafffing. I know this will be intense, especially staffing every other weekend, but is anyone else planning/considering moonlighting elsewhere? 4-10 hours a week.

Ew, I wouldn't want to moonlight if i'm working every other weekend. We staff every 3rd and some coresidents are thinking of moonlighting at their previous retail employer. Most previous PGY1s said they really cherished their weekends off so they didn't moonlight, I think i'll be the same maybe consider it once I start checking off things on the list in feb/march?

Originally Posted by ADN1226

Ew, I wouldn't want to moonlight if i'm working every other weekend. We staff every 3rd and some coresidents are thinking of moonlighting at their previous retail employer. Most previous PGY1s said they really cherished their weekends off so they didn't moonlight, I think i'll be the same maybe consider it once I start checking off things on the list in feb/march?

Feb/March is crunch time....gotta get that research project done in time for the regional residency conference.

We have to do every 3rd weekend a month, but I was told I can staff an additional weekend per month if I want...I need the money badly. Doable? Over-extending myself?

Wow, some of you are nuts haha I'm staffing every other weekend and definitely not adding anything else to my plate! I'm enjoying the slower pace right now (mostly shadowing/clinical training, code training, reviewing PK for vanco/AMGs, TPN, and other pharmacy consults/protocols) but rotations officially start next week- ahh!!