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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy
When Should I Start Thinking About Residency?
College Connection
by Kristen Ingold, P2, President-Elect Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) School of Pharmacy
The winter months may be the most stressful for PharmD candidates and current PGY1 residents. Since local residency showcases and ASHP Midyear fall within a short time span, the end of the calendar year becomes a hectic time. In addition to attending these showcases, prospective residents have to complete online applications, write numerous letters of intent, and cover travel expenses and application costs for each residency program. All this effort leads up to -- hopefully -- landing interviews and matching with your top ranked program. Considering this occurs in the last year of education, what does this mean for younger students? I will outline a P2’s perspective to residency and my ideal timeline for the next two years of school.
As a first-year pharmacy student, I immersed myself in our SSHP chapter because my faculty mentor highly recommended this organization. I learned about the numerous opportunities provided to the entire student body pertaining to residency. For example, SSHP offers residency preparation sessions and panels, and the members collaborate to attend numerous residency showcases. Everyone told me residency should not be on a first-year student’s mind, but I prefer to know every career pathway available. Therefore, I stepped out of my comfort zone to attend an online preparation session with older students as well as both residency panels. Throughout my first-year, I set goals for what I should accomplish during my P2 year to further increase my knowledge of residency programs.
What has been the benefit from being “pro-residency” so early in school? Many students do not contemplate pursuing residency until late in their third year or early in their APPE rotations. While there is no “optimal time” to think about residency, starting early brings benefits. For example, our preparation sessions provide direct information from faculty members and student experiences on how to approach residency programs and the application process. These sessions offer many “dos and don’ts” for the process as a whole. Although I do not have to worry about completing the application circuit yet, I have an idea of the amount of work and funds needed to seek a residency career pathway.
My personal favorite activities our organization hosts are the two residency panels, since they are an excellent resource for all students. The fall session consists of current PGY1 and PGY2 residents and students are free to ask questions. The spring session focuses on our own P4 students who have recently matched to a residency program. Recently, we held our fall panel for 2018. For mid-November, we did not expect the weather to impede our plans. However, our area experienced heavy snowfall the night prior, leading to multiple residents without a safe way to reach campus for the panel. We did prepare for the most unpredictable of situations, and we had an online video chat on stand-by. Overall, the residents loved sharing their experiences at Midyear, the match process, and experiences in their current programs. In my opinion, nothing can prepare a student better than talking with an actual resident with first-hand experience.
The amount of knowledge I have gathered about residency has designated me the contact person for my classmates as well as the younger students. When I entered this program as a first-year student, I wanted to know more about residency, but did not know where to start. I now feel a sense of pride that I can be that friendly reference I was missing in my P1 year to current P1s and P2s.
Over the next two years, as I shift from didactic coursework to experiential rotations before graduation, I will continue to attend the preparation sessions, panels, and showcases, as well as prepare a spreadsheet of programs I have researched and want to pursue. Residency is a two-way street: you have to like the program as much as the program likes you. My advice to fellow students is to find your contact person, whether that be a faculty mentor or an upperclassman, and communicate with them about residency to see if it is the path for you. And always, remember to keep an open mind; you never know where you will end up.
