Learning Experiences

In order to ensure that our residents are qualified across a wide range of clinical practice settings Southwest General’s residency program requires that all residents complete the following learning experiences.

Ambulatory Care (Longitudinal)

Direct patient care is an important part of any residency program, and our residents experience that through the longitudinal ambulatory care experience.The Coumadin Clinic provides residents with an opportunity to develop expertise in managing patients on warfarin therapy. Residents will develop autonomy and confidence as ambulatory care providers as they gain proficiency in patient assessment, therapeutic monitoring, dosage adjustments, and patient education in a collaborative, pharmacist-managed clinic.

Critical Care

This experience requires the resident to synthesize and apply drug therapy knowledge to medically complicated patient cases, making clinical recommendations based on patient specific changes in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. The resident will be integrated into the daily function of the medical team, including intensivists, nursing, and case management as well as participating in code blue and stroke alert responses.

Emergency Medicine

The emergency department is a unique practice site due to the wide variety of clinical experiences and the necessity of quick, independent decision making. The residents in the emergency department participate in code response, stroke alerts, rapid sequence intubation, and many other unique and time sensitive scenarios and are challenged to take on more responsibility as an independent practitioner. Despite these challenges, many previous residents have found this experience to be instrumental to their development as a pharmacist.

Infectious Disease

With the adaptation of the Joint Commission Antimicrobial Stewardship Standard, a pharmacist’s skills in infectious disease have never been more important. In this experience, our residents will work directly with Southwest’s antimicrobial stewardship pharmacists, physicians, and other clinical providers to monitor and improve antibiotic utilization across our hospital. They will learn through reviewing culture reports, making therapy recommendations, as well as gain valuable experience in pharmacokinetics and patient-specific dosing recommendations.

Internal Medicine

This experience provides the resident hands-on experience across many common disease states such as diabetes, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and infectious disease. Residents are involved in the day-to-day care of their patients, rounding with internal medicine physicians and cardiologists, and patient interaction and education. This experience forms the foundation for drug and disease knowledge that other learning experiences will build on.

Pharmacy Informatics (Longitudinal)

Pharmacy informatics is a required longitudinal experience. The purpose of this experience is to provide residents with a comprehensive learning experience in the field of pharmacy informatics as it relates to inpatient hospital pharmacy. The resident will work closely with the Pharmacy Informatics Specialist, gaining hands-on experience in the integration of technology and pharmacy practice. Throughout their other clinical experiences, the resident will be responsible for identifying opportunities to optimize systems or make formulary changes. The resident will collaborate with the hospital's information technology (IT) department to submit and validate change proposals related to these opportunities. The resident will be responsible for implementing these changes and communicating updates and performing any necessary training in the pharmacy department.

Transitions of Care

Nowhere else is a pharmacist more valuable than in the Transitions of Care process. Southwest has multiple pharmacists devoted specifically towards this important specialty practice. The residents will work collaboratively with patients, families, social workers, physicians, and extended care facilities to ensure optimal care for patients across the whole medical care continuum.

Elective Experiences and Customization

At Southwest General, we pride ourselves on customizing our program to the professional goals and aspirations of our residents. We offer a large degree of flexibility in scheduling and encourage residents to adapt their future schedule as their long-term goals become clearer throughout the residency. To accomplish this, we allow our residents 4 months of elective time throughout the year.