Resident activities

Daily activities while on the inpatient unit will include, but are not limited to:

  • Collaboratively managing drug therapy with other members of the healthcare team
  • Rounding daily with the transplant team
  • Patient monitoring/problem solving/documentation
  • Managing medication therapy via delegation protocols
  • Conducting pre- and post-transplant patient appointments in the transplant clinic
  • Investigation of medication error reports and patient/medication safety follow-up
  • Drug information, literature searches, reading and contributing to team files
  • Attending codes
  • Transplant Team-related projects
  • Communication and interaction with pharmacists, physicians, nurses, dietitians and social workers
  • Working with Doctor of Pharmacy clerkship students and PGY1 residents
  • Transplant Grand Rounds

Projects

Residents complete a longitudinal residency project which should be publishable upon completion. Many residents have chosen to complete a practice advancement project and a clinical research project. Other team-related projects may be assigned while on rotation.

Past resident projects include:

  • Development of a pharmacist-managed anemia protocol in the transplant clinic
  • Evaluation of antimicrobial penetration of biofilms produced by Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium urinary isolates from solid organ transplant recipients
  • Evaluation of generic tacrolimus trough concentrations at discharge and the association with the rate of biopsy proven acute rejection in renal transplant recipients
  • Evaluation of thymoglobulin versus basiliximab induction in sensitized deceased donor kidney transplant recipients
  • Utilization review of six months of valganciclovir prophylaxis for cytomegalovirus in transplant patients
  • Evaluation of the incidence of de novo donor-specific antibodies and antibody mediated rejection rates in moderately sensitized renal transplant recipients receiving thymoglobulin vs. basiliximab for induction
  • Evaluation of single-dose basiliximab induction on the incidence of patient and graft survival in renal transplant recipients
  • Implementation of a pharmacist-led protocol for home management of anemia in transplant recipients
  • Development of a pharmacist managed adherence clinic in the Transplant Clinic
  • Review of risk factors and outcomes in HLA-matched kidney recipients with rejection
  • Development and implementation of a CMV Stewardship program in Transplant Clinic
  • Cytomegalovirus preemptive monitoring conversion and the use of a preemptive threshold after solid organ transplant
  • Belatacept conversion in elderly renal transplant recipients

Presentation opportunities

The resident will have multiple presentation opportunities including, but not limited to:

  • Formal presentation at the Wisconsin Chapter of the International Transplant Nurses Society Conference
  • Educational presentations and in-services for pharmacists, nurses, physicians, residents, students, etc.
  • Weekly resident Grand Round Interprofessional Lunch and Learn (presenter and facilitator)
  • Informal journal club presentations while on clinical rotations

Teaching opportunities

  • Clinical instructor status at the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy
  • Serve as a co-preceptor for PGY1 residents and DPH-4 students on clinical rotation at the hospital
  • Serve as primary preceptor for IPPE students on rotation with the transplant team
  • UW School of Pharmacy transplant lecture to third-year pharmacotherapy students

Other activities

  • One-week UW Organ and Tissue Donation experience during the practice management rotation
  • Weekly Transplant Grand Rounds and bi-monthly journal club
  • Weekly desensitization luminex meeting and Transplant Selection Committee meetings
  • Advanced cardiac life support training
  • Assist in the development of guidelines and protocols
  • Opportunities to interact with residents in PGY2 — critical care, emergency medicine, infectious disease, information technology, internal medicine, oncology, pediatrics, transplant, and others; PGY1 — pharmacy practice; and PGY1 and PGY2 — hospital pharmacy administration.

Travel

  • Support to attend one national meeting (ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting, American Transplant Congress)
  • Support to attend a pharmacy residents conference (Great Lakes or Wisconsin Pharmacy Residency Conference)

Clinical staffing

Pharmacy services are provided by teams of pharmacists within an integrated practice model. These teams of pharmacists are de-centrally based and provide care as part of the interdisciplinary team through interdisciplinary rounds, clinical monitoring, medication order review, admission histories, discharge teaching and care coordination, code and stroke response teams, drug information resource and medication use stewardship.

The resident will staff as a de-central transplant pharmacist on the transplant team over the course of the residency year. On average, the resident will staff 24 hours every two weeks, including every third weekend.