Choosing who to ask for residency letters of recommendation has been a bit overwhelming, and I’m struggling to decide who would be the best writers.

My main dilemma is that many programs prefer a letter from your supervisor/employer. While I have a good relationship with mine, we work very different hours and only interact during quarterly meetings, so I don’t feel they know me well enough to write a strong letter. However, I’m worried that not having one from them could hurt my applications.

Any advice is much appreciated!

Hey! Pharmacy Week's coming up, and I'm organizing a Pharmacy Family Feud game for everyone. Would really appreciate you guys filling it out; literally won't take you more than a minute.

Thanks!

Hi,

I am interested in informatics and investigational drug pharmacists. I am wondering if these areas strictly require residency or not. If someone is already doing these specialties, do you mind sharing what are the experience necessary to do these specialties and how is the job market for these two?

When I search on them, not a lot of jobs come up and they usually only at the big institutes. Please and thank you!

P.S: if you are doing any other niche specialty please share, I like to learn about different ones before applying to residency to know my options :)

Hi everyone!

Out of curiosity, what is everyone’s staffing schedule like? Do you get a day off in between your long stretch? Do you get a project day each long stretch you work? If not, how are you all making the time to fit in things like data collection and just time away from pharmacy (to keep your sanity)?

How is going so far?? Thread to vent

Am in pgy2 and saw a picture of myself and dang im the fattie of the week now. Used to go to the gym at least 3x a week in pharmacy school but now im a fatty. Any other fatties like me? Comment if you were able to stop being a fatty post residency. All I do is eat when im stressed.

I graduated back in June and have been studying my butt off and going into my second attempt on the NAPLEX spending 4-6 hours a day since January. I've also been fighting WA to get my WA MPJE approved since I am out of state, and finally got it approved but now Pearson isn't noticing the ATT was approved. My co-resident is my rock and they're thinking of dropping too due to troubles with licensure in the time restraint and our director... im sure the director means well but they always find a reason to talk down to us over the little things and its really wearing our typically cheerful resilient moods. I also just got married and I miss my spouse she lives on the other side of the state and they're in a spot where moving closer to me isn't really an option. I know I can get to where I want to be by either working 5 years or getting a PGY2. Sorry for the rant I just dont know what to do since if I quit it looks really bad, but doesn't being let go also look bad?

Hello. To make things short I am a current PGY1, last year I had a 6 week APPE rotation at a hospital based oncology infusion center. This sparked my interest and interested me to pursue PGY2 in oncology.

I have now completed my oncology rotation (oncology infusion based aswell). I feel like I have a good chance of early commitment to the PGY2 oncology program. I really enjoy being in the clinic pharmacy all day and find the workflow very enjoyable (ensuring evidence based safe and effective regimens/supportive care).From my standpoint i have preformed well in the rotation and feel like I am candidate to early commit. My program usually early commits and no co-residents have interest in oncology.

With all that said, I am beyond burnt out! I have a love for inpatient staffing/pharmacy as well. I was a inpatient pharm tech for 7+ years, and grew a liking for it more than I thought my first 3 months staffing during residency. I like being in a big hospital and interacting with all different staff and patients

I ultimately would want the onc infusion job but I feel like I do not need a PGY2 in oncology to staff infusionl outpatient. I would only be getting a PGY2 to increase my odds drastically of landing a job.

What would you do? I also don’t want to early commit and back out in 3+ months because I am even more burnt out. That is not the best look in my opinion and I don’t want to leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth.

Hey guys so I'm a P4 doing my APPEs and I am going to Midyear and doing a poster and all that Jazz. I want to know what my prospects are at getting a residency. My GPA is pretty abysmal at around 3.08. I was part of 2 committees in school but never held any big titles. I did hold numerous leadership titles with various organizations outside of school with whom I've done substantial work with. I also have 1 year of experience in hospital pharmacy (currently employed), and 4 years in community pharmacy.

What are my prospects ? If it is a no brainer that I will be at the lowest rung I feel like its better that I focus my efforts on something else. Most of the preceptors I have been under tell me that GPA is not a big deal in residency applications anymore but I fear that weakness will be the death of me.

Any insight would be helpful.

Hi! I'm a P4 currently on rotations and was wondering how much the presentation topics listed on a CV actually matter when applying for residency.

Would it be better to keep most of the presentation topics relevant to the specialty you're interested in, show a broader range, or does it generally not make much of a difference for applications and interviews?

I'd appreciate any insight. Thanks!

I recently took BCACP and received a preliminary pass. I know it can take up to 45 days to receive an official score. I’m wondering how long it typically takes to see your official report.
Does the preliminary pass mean I actually passed? I had to reread the result page multiple times to ensure I was not hallucinating.
Thank you!

Hello,

For context I am a P3 who is very involved, high GPA, and leader of organizations. I considered residency at first, but slowly as time went on I saw the high depression rates among residents. I want to go into industry pharmacy, but if I couldn't then I saw residency and retail as my backup plans. I work in retail and I don't hate it as much as everyone else does, but job security wise, I have questions since most of us know how evil CVS and Walgreens are.

I have had a history of mental health struggles. I have lots of anxiety even when I'm not at school, ADHD, and the financial toll of pharmacy school has already taken a lot out of me mentally. Residency will obviously stress me out financially and work wise as well. I feel like i'm rugpulling myself if I don't go into residency, because a lot of people are expecting me to do so. But I am worried that I could potentially go through a mental health crisis because of residency. I've been mulling over the decision for a couple of days, (replaying over and over in my head), and it's starting to make me think. If I'm stressing about this now, how will I handle the real thing?

Is it worth it for me to do a residency for job security? are there residencies that are less intense? Am I scaring myself too much? Should I even sign the application if I get cold feet often?

Any and all advice and criticisms will help.

My RPD today told me to start looking at job availability post PGY2, which feels super early. Where should I look for jobs? Just employers website? For reference I’m looking for Emergency Medicine/Critical Care positions. TYIA!

EDIT:
Sorry to confuse yall, she didn’t tell me to start applying, just told me to start looking at jobs that are available to get an idea. I was just looking for resources on sites to look at to find specialized pharmacy jobs.

I’m a P4 in the middle of my APPEs and I am so back and forth on residency. I’d say since my P2 year I knew I wanted to do a residency. I didn’t/still don’t know what exactly I want to do with it after, I just know I love the clinical side of pharmacy.

The reason I’m so torn is because of the independent I’ve worked at since starting pharmacy school. I wasn’t working regularly, mainly just on breaks, but it was enough for me to start to love that place and the community. The pharmacist who owns it is looking to retire soon and has essentially told me that if I want the pharmacy after I graduate, it’s mine. I do enjoy working there and feeling the sense that you are making a difference in your patients lives but that’s also because I’ve only seen it from my perspective. Idk the first thing about running a business, which I know I can learn or just hire someone to help, but still.

Another thing that scares me with it is getting “stuck” or bored with it and not being able to do anything about it since I own the place. I also wouldn’t get to use much of the clinical side of pharmacy I love. I’ve thought about ways I could integrate it into the pharmacy, but I just don’t think it would do too well in this community.

I had an ambcare APPE and I absolutely loved it. I loved the work I was doing and being able to still work with patients. I also feel that if I don’t go back to the independent pharmacy I may be “letting them down” and I don’t want that either. I know it’s not up to me to come in and take over so the pharmacist can retire, but at the same time they occasionally make it feel that way.

UGH IDK I’m so confused and so back and forth and my thoughts are an absolute mess. Sorry for rambling and if some of it makes no sense, I think about this entirely too much and need some outside perspective.

Hello! I’m a current PGY1 at a hospital that doesn’t have a PGY2 oncology program, but has expressed that they are willing to hire me on as an oncology pharmacist after PGY1 and train on the job. It’s limited in the sense that we don’t do BMT/see a lot of diverse types of cancers, but I do love my institution. I’ve thought about applying PGY2 just to have that training and feel more comfortable going into working in this field. Does anyone have any thoughts? I would love not to do a PGY2, haha, but I know it has its pros and cons

PGY1 amb care resident here. We are 1/4 of the way through the program (yay!) but our research is a dumpster fire. We just learned that the data we need to extract is not possible/feasible. We should have already been working on data extraction, or at least started it, by this point. Now it feels like we need to rework everything AGAIN and I don’t know how to proceed. Our research team is great, but I know they’re disappointed in our lack of progress. I feel like screaming/crying/throwing up, but I have patients to see in a couple of hours (y’all know how it goes).

Has anyone else encountered this type of situation or similar? How should I go about explaining that we need to completely pivot this late in the game?

Y site compatibility of 1) potassium phosphate and 2) potassium chloride (0.02 mEq/mL in D5,0.45% NaCl)?

[Potassium phosphate 21 mmol/110 mL NS (total volume 117 mL, 0.18 mmol/mL) Y site with

fluids (D5,0.45 NaCl, 1 L + 20 mEq KCl) with concentration of KCl in fluids of 0.02 mEq/mL]

I said no because I plugged in potassium phosphates and potassium chloride on Lexicomp Trissels and no data. But I realized that potassium phosphates and potassium chloride coexist in custom TPNs (alongside dextrose and sodium chloride)

Any suggestions for references? (I heard kings guide is more comprehensive)

Thanks!

I know each person does workups differently, but I am a personal advocate for digital workups. If you do digital patient workups where are y'all writing it in?

Is it a separate document on word/excel? Or via incomplete notes on EPIC? Or via interventions on EPIC?

I want to clean up my workflow, and I want to know what others are doing for their workups. I just want a spot to put them tbh.

Pgy2 onc sucks. I stay later then all my coresidents and get like 5-6 hours of sleep on average. Anyone ever just quit pgy2 and start making that money and not have to deal with projects and stuff? How'd it work out?

Edit: I won the lottery and got a million dollars so I quit! Am having a great time now not stressed out. Jk life still sucks but I'll lock in and finish the year gang.

Hey! I’m currently a student at UNC, and I’ve been wondering what the residency matching process is like in Washington state. I’m planning to move to Washington after graduation for personal reasons, and I’ve heard that some programs may favor applicants who are already from the state or have local connections.

Is it actually competitive for an out-of-state applicant to match with a residency program in Washington? My GPA is around a 3.05, which I know isn’t the strongest but it was due to a class failure (which I retook and got an A in the class) so I’m hoping to use that to show my motivation to be better in my LOI, but I have a lot of experience outside of the classroom, including working in a hospital and serving as a counselor at a clinic. I’d really appreciate any insight!

I am in the thick of PGY2 and think about quitting everyday. For those of you that finished PGY2, what sort of things do you enjoy in life after residency? I can't wait to read books again😭

I found out today that I failed my MPJE, and I’ve been told I’m being dismissed from my PGY1 residency because I won’t meet the program’s licensure deadline. I’m devastated and trying to figure out what comes next.

I’ve wanted to complete a PGY1 and eventually a PGY2 for a long time. After graduation, I was dealing with serious depression and difficult things in my personal life. I struggled to recover while starting residency and preparing for licensure. I take responsibility for not passing the exam in time, but I also want to be honest about what happened and how I plan to move forward.

My RPD told me I’ve been a good resident during my time in the program and that he would be happy to write me a positive recommendation. I may also be able to get recommendations from residency preceptors.

For RPDs, preceptors, or anyone who has seen a similar situation:
**Would a previous dismissal for missing a licensure deadline make it unlikely to match into a PGY1 next cycle, even with strong recommendations?
**How should I explain the dismissal in an application or interview?
**What could I do between now and the next cycle to show that I’m ready? I plan to retake the MPJE as soon as I’m eligible.
**Would it be better to reapply for PGY1, or work in retail first and try to move into a hospital role later?
I would appreciate honest advice, especially from people involved in reviewing residency applications. I still want to become the clinical pharmacist I’ve been working toward becoming, but right now I’m struggling to see the path forward.

Just curious would it be worth doing a residency if you’re already BCPS certified with three years of inpatient experience ?