The PGY2 ambulatory care residency at the University of Tennessee Medical Center offers advanced, comprehensive training that provides residents with the opportunity to develop competency in various ambulatory care pharmacy practice settings. The goal of this program is to produce autonomous practitioners who are proficient in providing integrated patient care through their ability to design, implement, and improve clinical pharmacy services in any health care environment.
Our program is unique because we are housed within the medical center that contains the hospital, outpatient clinics, and University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center College of Pharmacy Knoxville Campus. This allows enhanced continuity in patient care, easier collaboration among providers in different specialty areas, and ample opportunities to educate and interact with student pharmacists. Our outpatient pharmacist specialists are trailblazing ambulatory care practice through advanced collaborative practice agreements, billing for services, new service implementation, and robust medication access programs.
There are 16 pharmacy residency positions within the University of Tennessee Medical Center, including a PGY1 and PGY1/PGY2 in pharmacotherapy and PGY2s in ambulatory care, internal medicine, critical care, and oncology. We have two ambulatory care resident positions. UTMCK residents enjoy a research coordinator to guide the research process, individual residency mentors personally matched to their personality and interests, a resident wellness committee with monthly activities, and membership within a committee of their choosing. PGY2 ambulatory care residents receive weekly touchpoints with the RPD to discuss service expansion projects, career advancement, and clinical topic discussions.
Unique opportunities for residents include:
- Completing a disease state competency grid to ensure holistic training
- Presenting continuing medical education Grand Rounds to physician and advanced practitioner colleagues
- Precepting pharmacy students and PGY1s
- Presenting a formal journal club and patient case
- Presenting continuing pharmacy education through a research seminar and at the Southeastern Residency Conference
- Learning from the Pharmacy Educator Academy through the University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Required rotations:
- Cardiology/Heart Failure Clinic (includes Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Lipidology Clinic)
- Family Medicine Residency Clinic
- Internal Medicine Residency Clinic
- Transplant Clinic
- Pulmonary/Cystic Fibrosis Clinics
- Medication Management
- Practice Management
- Research and Manuscript
- Teaching and Learning Certificate Program
- Ambulatory Care Staffing in the hospital’s outpatient pharmacy every third Sunday
Elective rotations:
- Academia
- Gastroenterology Clinic
- Geriatrics Service
- Infectious Disease Service and Clinic
- Inpatient Family Medicine
- Neurology Clinic
- Oncology Service and Clinic
- Pain Management Clinic
- Rheumatology Clinic
Example Resident Schedule
Residents have a mixture of longer longitudinal rotations and shorter specialty or elective rotations. They staff the family medicine and internal medicine medical residency clinics throughout the year. Residents have one day each week (typically Friday) to build or expand on their clinical pharmacy service project. Elective rotations are expanded to 2-month experiences to give residents a balance of continuity in longitudinal clinics while learning in new settings.
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
Family medicine residency clinic | Internal medicine residency clinic | Pulmonary clinic | Cystic fibrosis clinic | Project management |
As a PGY2 ambulatory care resident nearing graduation, I can confidently say I feel prepared to begin practicing as an outpatient pharmacist specialist. This program has offered me clinical knowledge expansion, mentored personal growth, a vast network of pharmacists practicing in a variety of specialties, and the autonomy to truly develop my practice style.
Website: https://www.utmedicalcenter.org/pharmacy-residency-programs
Instagram: @utmcpharmacyresidency
Contacts:
Residency Program Coordinator:
Kellie Ball, Pharm.D., MPH, BCACP
Ambulatory Pharmacist Specialist
[email protected]
Residency Program Director:
Jeff Lewis, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCACP, CDCES
Assistant Director, Outpatient Pharmacy Clinical Services
Assistant Professor, UTHSC Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Translational Science
Director, PGY2 Ambulatory Care Residency Program
[email protected]
Submitted by:
Kaitlyn Phillips, Pharm.D., BCPS
PGY2 Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Resident
University of Tennessee Medical Center
[email protected]