PGY1s with Am Care focus

[radio frequency]

I'm interested long term in a career with patient interaction and an ambulatory care focus, but not one with a retail focus.

Up until now, I thought ambulatory care residencies were 1. readily available everywhere and 2. the way to get into this sort of a career. After reviewing more ASHP information and discovering there isn't even a separate designation for PGY1 Ambulatory Care residencies, I'm wondering if I'm incorrect. At this point in time, I have no interest in working in a hospital later unless it was absolutely the right fit (hard to picture; I don't think hospital is my preferred type of work environment).

I guess I could do a general PGY1 then a PGY2 in ambulatory care, but that feels like a very long time period and I don't know if it's necessary if I'm not interested in working in a hospital environment.

I would love some feedback from anybody who works with patients in an outpatient/ambulatory care environment. How did you get there from here? What paths would you take if you were looking for residencies?

Thank you!

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[GoldfishPharmD]

There are PGY1 ambulatory care residencies. Google them. Community pharmacy residencies are also a good way to get into ambulatory care.

 

[GoldfishPharmD]

Residencies with the VA are also heavily focused on ambulatory are.

 

[radio frequency]

There are PGY1 ambulatory care residencies. Google them. Community pharmacy residencies are also a good way to get into ambulatory care.

Residencies with the VA are also heavily focused on ambulatory are.

I know the am care residencies exist; I just didn't realize that ASHP doesn't break them down into a separate category, which makes me wonder if they're considered as legitimate as a general PGY1. There are lots of opportunities to do them, I just worry that I won't be as employable later compared with somebody doing a hospital-based PGY1. Is this a legitimate concern?

I'm not interested in a community pharmacy residency...at least I'm pretty sure I'm not interested. What are the benefits/drawbacks of community pharmacy residencies vs ambulatory care residencies? I feel that on these boards they're looked down on as a waste, usually. I just don't know anybody who has done a community-based residency, so I don't really have a high opinion of them...

 

[Dalteparin]

I know a few Am Care pharmacists who did a PGY-1 at a hospital with ambulatory experiences (e.g. an outpatient cancer clinic), stayed on at their residency site afterwards, and then were able to get an Am Care job either at their residency site or another institution. They still had the usual hospital experiences, but they were able to diversify their CV with Am Care projects. If you can't find an Am Care residency you like, this might be a viable option.

 

[bacillus1]

Be careful of the PGY-1s heavily concentrated in am care. You may realize during PGY-1 (as I did) that you don't like am care as much as you thought, and then you won't be able to switch to inpatient anymore. In addition, there are many more inpatient than am care jobs that will take you with just a PGY-1. My advice: do a program that has experiences in both inpatient and am care (many VA programs are like this).

 

[radio frequency]

@Dalteparin & @bacillus1 , thank you!! This is exactly the sort of advice I need.

 

[GoldfishPharmD]

I know the am care residencies exist; I just didn't realize that ASHP doesn't break them down into a separate category, which makes me wonder if they're considered as legitimate as a general PGY1. There are lots of opportunities to do them, I just worry that I won't be as employable later compared with somebody doing a hospital-based PGY1. Is this a legitimate concern?

I'm not interested in a community pharmacy residency...at least I'm pretty sure I'm not interested. What are the benefits/drawbacks of community pharmacy residencies vs ambulatory care residencies? I feel that on these boards they're looked down on as a waste, usually. I just don't know anybody who has done a community-based residency, so I don't really have a high opinion of them...

Because it's not broken down doesn't mean it's not legitimate. They're accredited residencies. It's not going to get looked down upon if you do an ambulatory care PGY-1 if that's the type of job you're trying to get...

 

[EML9255]

Ok so this was my interest was well (unfortunately I did not match this year) but I can tell ya what I did do during my search.

Like mentioned above, the VA hospitals tend to have a large focus in ambulatory care. Some even have programs primarily based at CBOCs (community based outpt clinics). Here is what you need to do though....go through the ASHP residency directory and basically read the descriptions of each program AND visit their websites to learn more detailed information. This is the best way to see what is available am care wise. Also do they same for the Community residency section. There are many community ones that are called community but could probably be called ambulatory care. It will be time consuming but its also fun to see what is out there and I you will come across some great programs that fit what you want that you probably would not have even thought to apply to.

My other two cents is this....residency training is competitive (yeah yah we all know that) but def keep that in mind when applying. Looking back I wish i had applied to some more general PGY1, not amb care focus, at smaller hospitals. That being said I really am not a fan of inpatient so I had the concern that if i did the general pgy1 i would be miserable for whatever time i was not in am care but thinking about it now i think i would probably survive.

 

[TheBlaah]

Kaiser has a number of residencies that are ambulatory focused, or at least has an ambulatory component. They're mostly based in California though.

 

[radio frequency]

Thank you so much for all the feedback! I really appreciate the help. My school heavily pushes am care and so I sometimes feel like I might be getting a biased view of the opportunities available post-graduation. I like to hear what others across the country have to say about the matter.

Any other thoughts/advice?

 

[GoldfishPharmD]

Honestly, I think doing a general pgy-1 gives you more options. It's a good way to see many things and see if ambulatory care is still something you want to do.

 

[LovenoxAQ]

There are some older PGY-1 programs which were grandfathered in as amb care prior to ASHP making it a separate PGY-2 (at least this was the case when I was applying 2 years ago). Some of the community PGY-1s based out of academic medical centers are essentially amb care. You may be able to discern this from the ASHP website, but more so by speaking directly with the programs.

I agree with the others though - it may be a good choice to do a general PGY-1 which offers both inpatient and outpatient rotations.