PGY2 pharmacy residency programs build on Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) education and PGY1 pharmacy residency programs to contribute to the development of clinical pharmacists in specialized areas of practice. Our PGY2 residency in psychiatry provides residents with the opportunities to practice at the highest levels of pharmacy specialist practice. Residents who successfully complete our accredited PGY2 pharmacy residency are prepared for advanced patient care in any practice setting as evidenced by decades of successful graduates, now leaders and practitioners, across the country. The strong teaching and research components prepare individuals for careers with academic components and leadership skills to innovate within psychiatric pharmacy.
Clinical Practice
Residents provide direct patient care in a variety of practice settings and work closely with interprofessional teams. Each resident also acts as primary practitioner for a caseload of patients for the entire year. The residency’s major training sites are at Los Angeles General Medical Center within the LA County Department of Health Services. LA DHS is the second largest public health agency in the country and LA General is a 700-bed academic, safety-net teaching hospital serving the medically underserved population of Los Angeles. Additional practice experiences include: Keck Medical Center of USC, VA West Los Angeles, LA LGBT Center, Housing for Health (Street Medicine), and Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (DMH). LA General psychiatric hospital has 50 adult beds and 10 adolescent beds. The adult outpatient psychiatry clinic (AOPC) has approximately 750 active cases and the PGY2 psychiatry resident’s caseload ranges between 20 to 30 patients.
Responsibilities of the resident include provision of clinical services, education to patients, staff, and providers. Currently, the PGY2 resident provides comprehensive medication management (CMM) to a designated caseload of patients at LA General AOPC throughout the year and operates under their own collaborative practice agreement. The PGY2 resident collaborates with AOPC rehabilitation staff to lead a monthly Medication Education Series throughout the year.
The PGY2 is embedded into inpatient care for patients within Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry, Addiction Medicine, Inpatient Adult Psychiatry, and Inpatient Adolescent Psychiatry.
Practice Experiences
Beyond the coursework provided to all pharmacy residents at USC, PGY2 psychiatric pharmacy residents attend didactic seminars and conferences offered by the Department of Psychiatry. In addition, residents participate in regularly scheduled psychiatric pharmacy business meetings for program planning. Residents also select from a range of selective options in psychiatric pharmacy- related areas, including:
- Acute Care Psychiatry – LA General
- Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic – LA General
- Child/Adolescent Psychiatry – LA General
- Addiction Medicine – LA General
- Psychiatric Emergency Department – LA General
- Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry – LA General
- Street Medicine – DHS Housing for Health
- Outpatient Psychiatry – LA DMH
- Neurology (inpatient or outpatient) – LA General, Keck Medicine of USC, VA Greater LA
- LGBT Psychiatry – LA LGBT Center
Teaching
Residents are actively involved in the therapeutics curriculum for teaching PharmD students by providing didactic lectures and developing psychiatric case studies.
PGY2 Psychiatric Pharmacy residents may participate in the teaching certificate program which provides a curriculum of teaching seminars to train residents on best practices in teaching. PGY2 residents facilitate case conference for PharmD students for one semester – a once-weekly 2 hour class in which the resident facilitates a small group (12-16) of students to actively work on patient cases.
Through a Resident Teaching Mentor, residents receive timely feedback on their teaching activities and guidance on improving teaching skills.
Residents frequently are involved in departmental grand rounds presentations, psychiatry didactics, and precepting PharmD students and PGY1 residents.
Research
Residents may collaborate with any of the psychiatric pharmacy faculty in their ongoing research or choose their own topic to explore. A list of potential research topics will be provided to the resident upon entering the program.
Past residents have had their research presented at national conferences, published in peer-reviewed journals such as:
- Mental Health Clinician
- Journal of the American Pharmacists Association
- Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety
- and others
Past residents have received awards and/or grants for their research project from:
- American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists Foundation (AAPPF)
- American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Foundation (ASHPF)
- National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA)
- Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties (BPS)
Pharmacy Preceptors and Mentors
- David Dadiomov, PharmD, BCPP
- Julie Dopheiede, PharmD, BCPP, FASHP
- Kari Franson, PharmD, PhD, BCPP
- Heesoo Kim, PharmD, BCPP
- Tam Phan, PharmD, AAHIVP
- Alison Tang, PharmD, BCPP
- Autumn Walkerly, PharmD, BCPP