Is a residency required...

[highlyfavored]

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for nutrition support? Or could I do nutrition support right out of the PharmD program? I apologize for my ignorance about residencies. I thought that the purpose of the last yr of the pharmD program was to prepare a future pharmD for all areas of pharmacy. Could someone shed some light on this for me?

 

[tupac_don]

for nutrition support? Or could I do nutrition support right out of the PharmD program? I apologize for my ignorance about residencies. I thought that the purpose of the last yr of the pharmD program was to prepare a future pharmD for all areas of pharmacy. Could someone shed some light on this for me?

I don't think you need a residency for nutrition support. And I don't know many pharmacists who only do nutrition support, dieticians do that. I believe that you only have to be board certified in nutrition, its a test you sit for. Residency is much more involved. And also what do you mean by nutrition support. Pharmacists do TPN's and some places have a service that does TPN's that you don't really need a residency for, they train you in a week or two. But if you are talking about something like nutrition support for working out, or someone loosing weight, that's outpatient stuff. If you wanna do something like that you just gotta hook up with GNC or something.

 

[highlyfavored]

I don't think you need a residency for nutrition support. And I don't know many pharmacists who only do nutrition support, dieticians do that. I believe that you only have to be board certified in nutrition, its a test you sit for. Residency is much more involved. And also what do you mean by nutrition support. Pharmacists do TPN's and some places have a service that does TPN's that you don't really need a residency for, they train you in a week or two. But if you are talking about something like nutrition support for working out, or someone loosing weight, that's outpatient stuff. If you wanna do something like that you just gotta hook up with GNC or something.

By nutrition support I mean TPN. When I looked at areas of pharmacy, nutrition support was listed. I know that RDs calculate energy needs of pts for tube feeding and TPN, and they make recommendations for supplements to be used for tube feeding, but they can't do anything else for the TPN. I know on the nutrition support team, there is a RD and a PharmD. I know there are some standard TPN formulas and then the MD can order what he feels is appropriate for the pt. I guess this is where the PharmD comes in?

 

[tupac_don]

By nutrition support I mean TPN. When I looked at areas of pharmacy, nutrition support was listed. I know that RDs calculate energy needs of pts for tube feeding and TPN, and they make recommendations for supplements to be used for tube feeding, but they can't do anything else for the TPN. I know on the nutrition support team, there is a RD and a PharmD. I know there are some standard TPN formulas and then the MD can order what he feels is appropriate for the pt. I guess this is where the PharmD comes in?

You don't really need some real extensive knowledge, you can learn it quickly. Basically a pharmacist would balance the electrolytes in the TPN, GI can do this too or ICU doctors. But Pharm D makes their job easier by taking care of TPN's. It's not that difficult, you can get quite proficient at it quite quickly. So the answer to your q is you can do that without doing a residency, but you would have to be in a hospital in which pharmacists do this.

 

[highlyfavored]

ok, thanks for the replies. 🙂

 

[pinkyrx]

I think it depends on how specialized you want to be and also which hospital you want to work at. There are residencies offered here that specialize in nutrition support. I believe though they are more for people who might want to manage the entire nutrition aspect of a hospital and not just a pharmacist who wants to be involved in making tpns and that sort of thing. I think your best option would be to do a rotation during your last year with one of the nutrition teams.