PGY2 Infectious Diseases Residency

Pharmacy in Downers Grove

Midwestern University College of Pharmacy, Downers Grove (CPDG) offers a post-graduate year two (PGY2) infectious diseases (ID) residency program in conjunction with Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) in Chicago. The purpose of this program is to use and build upon the competencies achieved in a post-graduate year one (PGY1) residency to promote the development of proficient, independent clinicians with an expertise in infectious diseases pharmacotherapy. Upon completion of the program, graduates will possess the knowledge and skills to function as independent practitioners and members of a multidisciplinary team to provide patient-centered care for patients with infectious diseases and to assess and improve anti-infective utilization through antimicrobial stewardship. The dual focus of the program on infectious diseases and teaching is designed to prepare graduates to become effective educators of pharmacotherapeutic topics in the practice area of infectious diseases in the clinical and/or academic setting.

Residency Program Director
Sheila K. Wang, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCIDP
swangx@midwestern.edu 
Associate Professor, Midwestern University College of Pharmacy, Downers Grove
Clinical Specialist, Infectious Diseases, Northwestern Memorial Hospital

Residency Program Coordinator
Jacob P. Gettig, Pharm.D., MPH, M.Ed., BCPS, CHCP
jgetti@midwestern.edu 
Associate Dean of Assessment and Postgraduate Affairs and Professor
Midwestern University College of Pharmacy, Downers Grove

Required Competency Areas and Educational Goals

Upon completion of this residency, the resident should be able to:

• Patient Care
  • In collaboration with the health care team, provide comprehensive medication management to patients with infectious diseases following a consistent patient care process.
  • Ensure continuity of care during infectious diseases patient transitions between care settings.
  • Manage antimicrobial stewardship activities.
• Advancing Practice and Improving Patient Care
  • Demonstrate ability to manage formulary and medication-use processes for infectious diseases patients, as applicable to the organization and antimicrobial stewardship program.
  • Demonstrate ability to conduct a quality improvement or research project.
  • Manage and improve anti-infective processes.
• Leadership and Management
  • Establish oneself as an organizational expert for infectious diseases pharmacy-related information and resources.
  • Demonstrate leadership skills for successful self-development in the provision of care for infectious diseases patients.
  • Demonstrate management skills in the provision of care for infectious diseases patients. 
• Teaching, Education, and Dissemination of Knowledge
  • Provide effective medication and practice-related education to infectious diseases patients, caregivers, health care professionals, students, and the public (individuals and groups).
  • Effectively employ appropriate preceptor roles when engaged in teaching students, pharmacy technicians, or fellow health care professionals about care of patients with infectious diseases. 
     

Elective Competency Areas and Educational Goals

Upon completion of this residency, the resident should be able to:

• Academia
  • Demonstrate understanding of key elements of the academic environment and faculty roles within it.
  • Exercise case-based and other teaching skills essential to pharmacy faculty.
  • Develop and practice a philosophy of teaching.
• Outcome Research
  • Contribute to infectious diseases clinical, humanistic and economic outcomes analyses.
• Delivery of Medications
  • Manage and facilitate delivery of medications to support safe and effective drug therapy for infectious diseases patients.
• Medication-Use Evaluations
  • Lead a medication-use evaluation related to care of patients with infectious diseases.
• Publishing
  • Participate in the publication process on an infectious diseases-related topic.

PGY2 ID Residency Learning Experiences

Patient Care Learning Experiences

The concentrated patient care experiences of the residency program include inpatient and outpatient care of patients with infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship. The primary practice site for clinical rotations is Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) in Chicago. NMH provides comprehensive care to a variety of patient populations. Each resident completes monthly required and elective concentrated learning experiences throughout the residency year.

• General Medical or Surgical ID Consult Services (concentrated experience at NMH): 
  The general medical or surgical infectious diseases consult services are managed by teams comprised of an infectious diseases attending physician and fellow, medical residents and students, and pharmacy residents and students. An infectious diseases pharmacist is also either present during daily rounds or is available for consultation by pager. The general ID consult service provides care for approximately 10 to 20 patients daily. NMH is affiliated with the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, which provides an active training environment in the areas of medicine, surgery, obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, neurology, ophthalmology, psychiatry, pathology, to list a few. Active surgical and medical intensive care units provide clinical experiences with critically ill patients, and numerous community based admissions ensure opportunities to manage patients with community-acquired infections. The residents gain experiences managing diverse hospitalized and ambulatory patients with a broad range of infectious diseases and socioeconomic, ethnic and racial backgrounds.
  
  The residents act as a valuable member of the team by providing recommendations for optimal anti-infective use upon a thorough review of all patient information, medication properties and microbiological data. In addition to being the medication specialist on daily rounds, the residents are also responsible for teaching and co-precepting pharmacy students and PGY1 pharmacy residents. This includes facilitating discussions during daily meetings with students and PGY1 pharmacy residents and participating in student evaluations. The residents' preceptors work closely with the residents to ensure adequate oversight while still allowing the residents independent practice opportunities.
   
• Immunocompromised Transplant ID Consult Service (concentrated experience at NMH):
  The immunocompromised transplant ID consult service offers residents an advanced experience in managing patients with complex infectious diseases that may be complicated by bone marrow/solid organ transplantation, oncology, trauma, orthopedics, surgery or HIV/AIDS. The immunocompromised ID consult service manages care for approximately 10 to 20 patients daily. The service generally consists of an ID attending physician, an ID fellow, an ID pharmacist, medical residents, and pharmacy students. The residents participate in daily teaching rounds with the ID attending physician and ID fellow. The rotation provides many opportunities for discussion and instruction regarding antifungals, antivirals and antiretrovirals, which are often used when treating immunocompromised patients. In addition, the complexity of managing immunocompromised patients provides the residents with opportunities to learn about unconventional drug therapy and the clinical controversies of managing this patient population. The residents are responsible for facilitating daily meetings with their students and PGY1 pharmacy residents and evaluating student performance on their ID rotations. The residents' preceptors work closely with the residents to ensure adequate oversight while still allowing the residents independent practice opportunities.
   
• Antimicrobial Stewardship (concentrated experience at NMH):
  The Antimicrobial Stewardship Team (AST) is a multidisciplinary team of ID physicians and pharmacists established for the purpose of antimicrobial stewardship. The primary goal of the antimicrobial stewardship program is to provide the health-system and patients a prospective and interventional approach to optimizing the use of antimicrobial agents. The team develops and implements various policies that guide the antimicrobial selection, dosage, and duration for specific infectious disease states in an attempt to minimize resistance and costs associated with indiscriminate antimicrobial use. Specific responsibilities of the residents include assessing the appropriateness of restricted antimicrobials with the ID pharmacist/physician and assisting with a variety of on-going research projects to evaluate the hospital's use of anti-infective agents, clinical outcomes, and pharmacoeconomic impacts of current practices. This rotation will also provide the residents with several opportunities to present policies and outcomes to pharmacists, students, administration, and members of the Antimicrobial P&T Subcommittee.
   
• Infectious Diseases/HIV Ambulatory Clinic (concentrated experience at Howard Brown Health): 
  The residents and pharmacists play an essential role in the medical management of these patients by assisting physicians with selecting appropriate antiretroviral regimens and additional therapies for various disease states and by providing drug information on dosing, interactions, adverse reactions, and therapeutic drug monitoring. Residents and pharmacists also perform medication reconciliation for inpatients and authorize refills as needed. Counseling patients on new antiretroviral regimens and other medications is another key role of the residents and pharmacists. Patients rely on the residents and clinic pharmacists for explanations on medication indications, administration, and adverse reaction management. Consequently, the HIV/ID clinic pharmacists have developed strong relationships with their patients.
   
• Weekend/Evening Clinical Learning Experience (longitudinal experience at NMH): Residents will be required to provide clinical/staffing services at their site every third weekend (at Northwestern Memorial Hospital).

Non-Patient Care Learning Experiences

Residents complete a concentrated learning experience in clinical microbiology and a longitudinal hospital administrative learning experience. They also complete a residency project and participate in clinical discussions, the Research Curriculum, the Teaching and Learning Curriculum (TLC) and the Pharmacy Management and Leadership Curriculum (PMLC). The residents also receive a faculty appointment as a Visiting Instructor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Midwestern University.

• Clinical Microbiology Laboratory (concentrated experience at NMH):
  The clinical microbiology learning experience is a one month required intensive introduction to medical microbiology. Teaching sessions are provided by the Director of Microbiology and include lectures, laboratory bench exercises in the identification of microorganisms, laboratory technical rounds, and presentation of microbiology topics and cases. The residents participate in the same training sessions as the medical ID fellows and the pathology residents. The residents work closely with these individuals and form important multidisciplinary contacts and relationships. The goal of this concentrated rotation is to teach the residents essential concepts and skills necessary for effective interaction with the clinical microbiology laboratory and physicians who use the laboratory for the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. Upon completion of this required rotation, the residents are eligible for extended bench and specialty rotations and/or opportunities for participation in other microbiology research projects. The extended bench and specialty rotations consist of hands-on work under the direction of the Director of Microbiology and experienced microbiology technologists and provide opportunities for processing specimens, testing, and reporting microbiological results.
   
• Hospital Administrative Learning Experience (longitudinal experience at NMH):
  As a part of the longitudinal hospital administrative learning experience, residents participate in the activities of the Anti-infective Subcommittee of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) Committee and the Infection Control Committee. Residents observe and engage in discussions related to organizing and maintaining the hospital's anti-infective formulary, review current resources for the implementation and/or revision of anti-infective guidelines and/or protocols and contribute a pharmacy practice perspective to issues related to infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship. In addition, the residents may participate in related outcomes research to improve current organizational use of anti-infectives in the hospital. Throughout their administrative experience, the residents collaborate with other members of the infectious diseases health care team (e.g., infection control personnel, clinical microbiology laboratory staff, physicians, and nurses).
   

Elective Learning Experiences

Elective learning experiences are available and may be used for research, additional training in the core areas of infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship, or in other specialty areas with a focus in infectious diseases pharmacotherapy (e.g., critical care, hematology/oncology/BMT, solid organ transplant, pediatrics, internal medicine).

Research Experience

The resident must design and complete a residency research project during the course of the residency program. The project must relate to infectious diseases pharmacotherapy.

Program Details

• Faculty Appointment: Each resident will receive a faculty appointment as a Visiting Instructor in the Midwestern University College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmacy Practice.
• Benefits: Includes vacation/flex/sick time; health benefits; some financial support for professional meetings, memberships, and research. Laptop provided for the year.
• Duration: The 52-week residency begins on July 1 ends on June 30 of the following year.
• Qualifications of the Resident: Pharm.D degree, completion of PGY1 residency, academic transcript(s), curriculum vitae, 3 letters of recommendation are required. All application materials should be submitted through PhORCAS. Applicants must be eligible for pharmacist licensure in Illinois and must be motivated, self-directed, and have excellent communication skills.

Currently, we do not sponsor visas for foreign pharmacy residency applicants.

Contact Information

Sheila K. Wang, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCIDP, swangx@midwestern.edu 
Associate Professor, Pharmacy Practice
Midwestern University College of Pharmacy
555 31st Street
Downers Grove, IL 60515