Closing the residency training gap

My attendance at the 2010 ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting and the Pharmacy Practice Model Summit in November 2010 and dialogue with colleagues have made clear to me that the future direction of pharmacists’ work in health systems will largely be driven by impending changes in health care financing, increased use of technology and technicians, and the training of future practitioners. Responding to these developments will require that we have prepared our next generation of leaders for the task. As Bush1 and Ivey and Farber2 have pointed out, there is no better way to do this than through residency training. In 2007, the ASHP House of Delegates established a goal that all new graduate pharmacists participating in direct patient care should complete a residency.3 It was a good start toward having practitioners in place with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for success. But that is just an ideal. Now we must make that goal a reality by increasing the number of available residency positions.