Definition: Postgraduate Year One (PGY-1)²

Postgraduate year one of pharmacy residency training is an organized, directed, accredited program that builds upon knowledge, skills, attitudes, and abilities gained from an accredited professional pharmacy degree program. The first-year residency program enhances general competencies in managing medication-use systems and supports optimal medication therapy outcomes for patients with a broad range of disease states.

Definition: Postgraduate Year Two (PGY-2)³

Postgraduate year two of pharmacy residency training is an organized, directed, accredited program that builds upon the competencies established in postgraduate year one of residency training. The second-year residency program is focused on a specific area of practice. The PGY-2 program increases the resident’s depth of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and abilities to raise the resident’s level of expertise in medication therapy management and clinical leadership in the area of focus. In those practice areas where board certification exists, graduates are prepared to pursue such certification.

Interpetation

Residencies exist primarily to train pharmacists in professional practice and management activities. Residencies provide experience in integrating pharmacy services with the comprehensive needs of individual practice settings and provide in-depth experiences leading to advanced practice skills and knowledge. Residencies foster an ability to conceptualize new and improved pharmacy services. Within a given residency program, there is considerable consistency in content for each resident. In addition, accreditation standards and program guidelines produced by national pharmacy associations provide considerable program content detail and foster consistency among programs.

References

1. Definitions of pharmacy residencies and fellowships. Amer J Hosp Pharm 1987;44:1142–4.
   
   Developed by a consortium of representatives from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), the American College of Apothecaries (ACA), the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP), the American Pharmaceutical Association (APhA), the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP), the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists (ASHP), and the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA). Approved by the ACCP Board of Regents on December 5, 1986.
2. ASHP Accreditation Standard for Postgraduate Year One (PGY-1) Pharmacy Residency Programs. American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists (ASHP); Approved by the ASHP Board of Directors, September 23, 2005. Developed by the ASHP Commission on Credentialing. [Resource on World Wide Web] URL: http://www.ashp.org/s_ashp/docs/files/RTP_PGY1AccredStandard.pdf. Available from Internet. Accessed October 27, 2008.
3. ASHP Accreditation Standard for Postgraduate Year Two (PGY-2) Pharmacy Residency Programs. American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists (ASHP); Approved by the ASHP Board of Directors, September 23, 2005. Developed by the ASHP Commission on Credentialing. [Resource on World Wide Web] URL: http://www.ashp.org/s_ashp/docs/files/RTP_PGY2AccredStandard.pdf. Available from Internet. Accessed October 27, 2008.