Inova is pleased to offer a Medication-Use Safety and Policy PGY2 residency. The resident will be positioned at the system office with rotations, as well as connection to all locations.

The PGY2 pharmacy residency program builds on Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) education and PGY1 pharmacy residency programs to contribute to the development of clinical pharmacists in specialized areas of practice. PGY2 residencies provide residents with opportunities to function independently as practitioners by conceptualizing and integrating accumulated experience and knowledge and incorporating these into a myriad of advanced practice settings. Residents who successfully complete an accredited PGY2 pharmacy residency are prepared for academic or other specialized positions. Some such positions can include: informatics, medication safety position, FDA position and the possibility of board certification, if available.

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Program Description – PGY2 Medication-Use Safety and Policy Residency

Medication reliability and safety are integral to the provision of optimal pharmaceutical care, and the Inova pharmacy departments continually review medication incident reports, adverse drug events and medication errors to identify potential areas for improvement of systems. 

The Medication Safety Officer is tasked with overseeing the safe medication practices across the system in partnership not only with the pharmacy teams, but also with the providers, nursing teams as well as allied healthcare partners, The scope of work is not only in the acute care setting, of which Inova has five, but also in the ambulatory space as well as the retail setting. Since the resident will be working directly with and under the auspices of the Medication Safety Officer, there are ample opportunities for the resident to impact patient care across a wide spectrum of disciplines and settings.

The resident will have the opportunity to experience Information Systems technological impact to medication use, safety officers' roles, as well as data analytics and report development and interpretation.

One of the longitudinal experiences that the resident will do to achieve their PGY2 certificate is writing for publications in multiple venues as well as a research component where the expectation is an IRB protocol submission to the active system IRB.

Committees and interdisciplinary team work across the span of the health system will allow the resident a robust and varied year of experience. The resident will also have a teaching experience as Inova serves as an Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience and Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience sites for pharmacy students from both the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy and the Dunn School of Pharmacy at Shenandoah University.

Competency Outcomes

  1. Assessing Safe and Effective medication – Use Systems and Policies
  2. Medication – Use Data collection and Analysis
  3. Designing Safe and Effective Medication – Use Systems/Policies
  4. Drug Shortages and Supply Interruptions
  5. Medication Use Technology
  6. Medication Use Research
  7. Leadership and Management
  8. Teaching, Education and Dissemination of Knowledge

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Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) Award

Inova's pharmacy medication team has been recognized for successful implementation of error-reduction strategies around insulin administration. The ISMP Cheers Awards honor work that is setting a standard of excellence in the prevention of medication errors and adverse drug events.

The pharmacy medication team collaborated with other disciplines to implement error-reduction strategies, including restricting regular insulin to the IV route, requiring regular insulin prescribing via order sets with dosing limits, linking orders for IV push regular insulin to ensure dispensing of an appropriate needleless luer lock insulin syringe, and including an image of the appropriate syringe to be used for administration in the medication administration record. Learn More