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Program Design

Core Rotations

The residency program is tailored to the interests and career goals of each resident. The resident’s rotation schedule is determined at the beginning of the year with a core program consisting of the following:

  • Orientation
  • Inpatient Acute Adult Psychiatry
  • Crisis Stabilization
  • Geriatric Acute Inpatient Psychiatry
  • Inpatient Pediatric, Adolescent, Eating Disorder Psychiatry
  • Psychiatric Emergency Services
  • Inpatient Perinatal Psychiatry (2 weeks)
  • Inpatient Neurology
  • Co-precepting 

Elective Rotations

Three elective rotation months are available. Residents must choose at least one consult service and one ambulatory care experience.

Consult Services (at least 1)

  • Addiction Medicine
  • Consult Liaison Psychiatry

Ambulatory Care (at least 1)

  • Chronic Pain Management Clinic
  • Neurology Clinic
  • Outpatient Mental Health (Durham VA)

Other Specialty  

  • Geriatric Medicine Clinic (2 weeks)

  • Women's Health Inpatient Services (2 weeks)

  • State Hospital - Serious and Persistent Mental Illness (SPMI) (Central Regional Hospital)

  • Advanced Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatry (UNC Hospitals Youth Behavioral Health)

  • Academia with Psychiatric Focus (UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy)

Requirements for Program Completion

  • Complete all scheduled learning experiences

  • Receive an evaluation score of "Achieved for the Residency" (ACHR) for at least 85% of PharmAcademic objectives required by the program

    • Resident must obtain at least “Satisfactory Progress” or “Achieved” for all other objectives (i.e. Objectives cannot be marked as “Needs Improvement”)

  • Complete a one year research project including all of the following: project proposal submission, creation of a data collection tool, IRB submission (if appropriate), data retrieval, data analysis, formal presentation (poster OR platform) at a local/regional/national forum, creation of a draft manuscript in publishable quality

  • Co-precept a medication use evaluation for a pharmacy student/intern
  • Complete a drug class review, monograph, treatment guideline, or protocol related to care of patients with psychiatric and neurologic disorders, including proposals for medication-safety technology improvements

  • Contribute approximately 400 hours of staffing support to the department through weekday, weekend, day/evening and holiday clinical and/or operations staffing requirements based on department needs

  • Attend at least 8 hours of resident CE programming

  • Complete all evaluations in PharmAcademic, ASHP's approved tool

  • Provide a 30-60 minute (RPD determined) ACPE accredited CE program for pharmacists and/or pharmacy technicians within and outside the Department of Pharmacy

  • Participate in clinical on-call duties if deemed necessary by the pharmacy department

  • Serve as a support resource/teaching assistant at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy during at least one semester of the academic year

  • Serve on a designated hospital or health system committee as assigned by the program

  • Lead a minimum of one 60-minute didactic session for intern psychiatrists

  • Document completion of the PGY2 Psychiatry program appendix as required by ASHP

  • Participate in all learner topic discussions unless excused by the RPD

  • Upload files to document completion of all required residency components into PharmAcademic (CE, research project, data collection tool, manuscript, IRB, research proposal, appendix completion, etc.)

Additional Requirements

Staffing Component

Psychiatric pharmacy residents will receive training specific to staffing in areas relevant and adjacent to psychiatric clinical pharmacy practice, including acute care, emergency department, and other areas.

Residents who are new to the program and institution may also receive limited training in operational areas in order to better understand the workflow associated with medication delivery. Over the course of the year, pharmacy practice responsibilities will consist of:

  • 15 weekday staffing days (evenings) split into week-long blocks and random days
  • 1/3 of weekends (Sat-Sun) clinical staffing

Pharmacy practice responsibilities will include but are not limited to: verification of medication orders, clinical management of medication issues, follow-up of therapeutic drug monitoring, patient profile review, answering complex drug information questions, admission and discharge medication reconciliation, and participation in medical emergencies.

Seminars/Professional Meetings

Each resident is expected to attend at least one national conference depending on the needs of the resident and program. The American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists (AAPP) annual meeting in April and/ or ASHP Mid-Year Clinical Meeting in December are suggested. Residents are allocated travel funds based on departmental resources annually.

Teaching

Required:

  • Teaching Assistant for the Mental Health Elective for UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy
  • Co-precept for students and PGY-1 Pharmacy residents
  • Participate in the Psychiatry Intern Lecture Series
  • ACPE-accredited lecture within the UNC Pharmacy Resident CE series

Other Opportunities:

  • Teaching Assistant for the Substance Abuse Elective for UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy
  • Lecture for the Mental Health Elective at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy
  • Present to student AAPP chapter at UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy

Community Outreach

Service-based learning opportunities are available through the Student Health Action Coalition (SHAC) SHAC is a student-led organization whose mission is to provide free health services to local underserved individuals and communities, partner with communities to develop and implement sustainable programs, and create an interdisciplinary service-learning environment for students in the health science programs at UNC. The resident is required to serve 1 shift at SHAC per semester.

Research and Publications

Each resident is responsible for completing one research project with the guidance of a preceptor and various resources at UNC. The project must involve IRB submission and approval, data analysis, presentation of results at a national or local meeting, and writing a manuscript of project. Residents will be encouraged and supported to submit projects for publication.

Leadership

Each resident is expected to serve on a UNC Pharmacy Department committee for the duration of their residency year. Residents are required to attend committee meetings and perform duties assigned by committee members. In addition, residents can elect to complete a Leadership Certificate Program.

For more information contact:

Elizabeth Taber, PharmD, BCPP

PGY2 Residency Program Director