Residency training programs: Laboratories for innovation

In 2014, health-system pharmacists celebrated 50 years of pharmacy residency accreditation. Residency training in pharmacy precedes the development of the accreditation process.1 The Commission on Credentialing, the official keeper of pharmacy residency accreditation, constantly works to encourage innovation while maintaining the critical core of pharmacy practice in training programs. Since formal residency training began, residency programs have been laboratories for innovation that have led to changes in health-system pharmacy practice. In fact, many of the changes adopted by pharmacy practice started as successful residency projects. This issue of AJHP spotlights innovations in pharmacy residency training, spanning from narrowly focused changes to sweeping changes within a specific program. Authors describe creative methods to improve residents’ clinical training and enhance interprofessional training experiences, include lean methodology and offer other ways to innovate. Simulations are becoming a common part of competency training in healthcare. Bastin et al. describe a program at a major academic medical center that incorporates simulation training for residents in high-stress, high-impact clinical scenarios, such as sepsis and stroke. The use of postgraduate year 2 residents to precept postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) residents participating in the simulation training is an additional benefit. Simulation training provides important opportunities to standardize situations that may otherwise be challenging to teach, allowing learners to understand the impact of their clinical choice on patient outcome through immediate feedback. In addition, simulation training supports the repetition of complex but infrequent circumstances on the presumption that practice makes perfect.