Is there such a thing as a neonatal residency?

[ICA]

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When you do a residency, does it usually encompass all aspects of clinical pharmacy or can you specialize (i.e. neonatal, pediatric, geriatric, etc.)?

 

[kristakoch]

When you do a residency, does it usually encompass all aspects of clinical pharmacy or can you specialize (i.e. neonatal, pediatric, geriatric, etc.)?

With residencies, what you usually have to do (and I emphasize usually, since it is not always) is a genernal pharmacy practice residency. This encompasses almost all aspects of clinical pharmacy. Then you can apply for a second residency or a fellowship in a certain area - ie peds, etc.

Hope this helps

 

[tupac_don]

When you do a residency, does it usually encompass all aspects of clinical pharmacy or can you specialize (i.e. neonatal, pediatric, geriatric, etc.)?

Yea as Krista said, you do a general residency where you can do an elective in neonatal pharmacy. Then when you are done with a general residency, u can then do a specialty residency. Neonatal residency would be a waste of time, and I dont' mean that to discourage. All I am saying is that it is too highly specialized, and you would have to go move where the job dictates, b/c not too many hospitals have a neonatal pharmacy specialist. What I would do if I were you is take a general residency and then pharmacy practice residency, and then take a whole bunch of electives in neonatal pharmacy. That way you could apply for that position and say internal medicine. In my opinion that would just give you more options and choices. Good luck.

 

[ICA]

Yea as Krista said, you do a general residency where you can do an elective in neonatal pharmacy. Then when you are done with a general residency, u can then do a specialty residency. Neonatal residency would be a waste of time, and I dont' mean that to discourage. All I am saying is that it is too highly specialized, and you would have to go move where the job dictates, b/c not too many hospitals have a neonatal pharmacy specialist. What I would do if I were you is take a general residency and then pharmacy practice residency, and then take a whole bunch of electives in neonatal pharmacy. That way you could apply for that position and say internal medicine. In my opinion that would just give you more options and choices. Good luck.

Thanks Krista and Tupac. That does make sense. There are only so many level-3 (?) hospitals in my are that actually have NICU's...

Maybe I'm looking too far ahead... I still have to get accepted into pharm school first. 😳

 

[ZpackSux]

Thanks Krista and Tupac. That does make sense. There are only so many level-3 (?) hospitals in my are that actually have NICU's...

Maybe I'm looking too far ahead... I still have to get accepted into pharm school first. 😳

Children's Hospitals should have NICUs. And if you want to do a residency in Peds.. you probably want to do it at a Children's Hospital..

I may be stating something too obvious..

 

[ZpackSux]

Nah, its not that obvious. A pharmacy practice residency in a Children's Hospital is definitely the way to go. Lots of specialties there...neonat, icu, nephrology, oncology, burns, etc. There would be good experience in parenteral nutrition there too since all of those baby TPNs aren't stock solutions like with adults. If you're lucky there will be a good drug info dept or an investigational program.

I recall cranking out 50 TPNs per day while I was an intern at a Children's.. then our director farmed it out to CAPS..

 

[ZpackSux]

Where was your Children's? Mine was in Michigan.

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles

Have you ever seen the Pink Pediatric Drug book? It is written by Carol Taketomo at CHLA...long time ago. Of course the new edition comes out every year, published by Lexi Comp.. She was my first manager. She told me one day.. "you shouldn't really do anything that's detail oriented..you're not very good at filling med carts.. but you could make a good manager one day.."

 

[ZpackSux]

Oh, man. Me too. I don't think I ever hit 50....but 35 was common. Plus chemos, and throw in a bad DKA kid that changes solutions every 20 minutes, or a cardiac kid that needs new epi, nitro, flushes, isuprel...stat. Ah yes, those were the days.

There were 11 to 12 interns. We were the techs on weekends. IV room had 3 interns.. Chemo, Antibiotics, and TPN interns.. Man..we cranked out some serious IVs.

I didn't like the Main Pharmacy or the Satelites.. didn't like filling carts. Then Pyxis came. 👍