PhORCAS and References

Hopefully you have already contacted your reference writers by this point.  If this was a topic discussed with them many months ago, this would also be a good time to confirm that they are still willing to serve as a reference.  If you have not contacted anyone yet, it would be a good idea to reach out to 3 - 4 people who meet the following criteria:

• They are knowledgeable about what pharmacy residencies are looking for in a candidate.
• They know details about your assertiveness, time management, dependability, emotional maturity, ability to work with peers, professional demeanor, leadership, resourcefulness, willingness to accept constructive criticism, independence, and clinical problem-solving skills.  They have worked side-by-side with you and have seen you work in challenging conditions, in other words.
• They have had the opportunity to evaluate your writing and verbal communication skills directly (watched you give a presentation, read one of your assignments, etc.).
• They believe that you exceed what is expected in the majority of all of these areas.

Consider the possibility that you are also being judged on the relative importance of WHO you ask to serve as a reference for you.  This does not mean that you should immediately go and ask the Dean.  If they can only speak about you in very vague and non-specific terms, do not ask that person (ex. "he came to class," "she turned assignments in on time," "she wasn't unprofessional," "it seems like his peers like him").  If a nationally-recognized clinical pharmacist has recently served as a preceptor for you, you might get some mileage out of the recognition of that person; only ask this person if they know you well and truly think you are a rock star.  Do not ask administrative assistants, friends or family members (even if healthcare professionals), or pharmacy technicians.  Think carefully before asking undergraduate professors and some types of prior supervisors.  Their endorsement of you may not carry as much weight.

There is a big change this year for references and you need to let people know this information up front.  PhORCAS will no longer be accepting uploaded letters of recommendation.  Instead, reference writers will only answer the questions provided online.  This will ultimately save the reference writer some time and effort, which will hopefully mean that it will be easier for deadlines to be met.  There will also be no size limits for fields where reference writers can include open comments.  Take some time to review the questions that reference writers will be asked to answer online (PhORCAS Standardized Reference questions).  It may not be a bad idea to discuss some of these questions with them so that they know your self-identified areas of weakness and measures you are taking to improve on those areas. Keep in mind that you are not going to be able to review any of their responses in PhORCAS.

Finally, it is suggested that you provide reference writers with a list of programs to which you will be applying, with their published deadlines, even if you have not yet selected all of your designations in PhORCAS.  Consider also letting them know information about why you are interested in specific programs so they can speak specifically about your perceived fit with those programs.

Pharmacy Residency Applications and Pre-Interview Rankings

The larger residency programs often receive hundreds of applications each year for a handful of residency positions.  Before PhORCAS, large amounts of data would need to be transferred from paper applications to spreadsheets allowing for a fair and consistent comparison of candidates.  As the number of applicants has grown and because the applicant numbers are expected to continue growing, more programs are turning to internal rankings using data pulled from PhORCAS.  A recent study published in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacists describes one program's system for determining which applicants to invite for an on-site interview.  Prior to the analysis, they used 13 different characteristics.  After evaluating which factors were most likely to predict whether an applicant received an on-site interview, they removed duplicate factors and came up with 7 applicant characteristics which are starred below:

• Work experience pertaining to pharmacy*
• Professional association involvement*
• Types of rotation experiences*
• Publications*
• Presentations*
• Certifications and skills attained*
• Experience with research
• Grades*
• Recommendation letters
• Service to the community
• Awards and scholarships
• Letter of interest
• Leadership experience

Although letters of recommendation had the highest odds ratio of all of the characteristics (2.04), the 95% confidence interval suggests high variability with the predictability of this characteristic (0.79 - 5.27). The authors noted that most candidates score highly in this area making it a less valuable predictor of whether a student will be extended an offer to interview.

Grade point average was evaluated as a continuous variable in this model.  The applicability of the model to evaluating candidates without a GPA (ex. students from Roseman University) were not evaluated.  They noted that in the future, GPA could instead be used as a dichotomous variable (ex. yes or no to GPA above a certain cutoff) since students with a GPA below 3.0 were not extended an offer to interview.  

The authors felt that this process would be generalizable to other institutions but note that specific factors may vary by institution and that characteristics were not evaluated against PGY1 pharmacy practice residency performance.

Ensor CR, Walker CL, Rider SK, Clemente EU, Ashby DM, Shermock KM. Streamlining the process for initial review of pharmacy residency applications:  An analytic approach. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2013 Oct 1; 70(19):1670-5.

Personal Placement Service - decision time!

Personal Placement Service (PPS) is a service offered by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists which takes place at their Midyear Clinical Meeting (MCM).  It allows employers and potential employees to meet face-to-face for a mini-interview at Midyear.  In addition to traditional job opportunities, PPS is also a venue for those interested in pharmacy residencies.  Participation in PPS is not universal so it is important to understand the factors which will predict whether a PGY-1 residency program will participate in PPS.  The programs most likely to participate are:

• Large programs which offer both PGY-1 and PGY-2 positions
• Large employers which may also have multiple job openings as well
• Pharmaceutical industry fellowships
• Programs geographically located close to where the MCM will be held ( this will be Florida in 2013)

Decision time is here because early-bird prices for PPS applicants expire on October 21st (prices go from $70 to $130 for students).  Although the ASHP meeting is not until December, if you are interested in participating in PPS, you should consider getting started now so that you can secure an interview slot at the meeting.  Once you register for PPS, employers and residency directors will be able to find you in searches for PPS participants.  You will also be able to express your interest in participating programs.  Because PPS involves scheduled interview times, not everyone who wants an interview will receive one.  Programs will be looking for your qualifications as well as whether what they are offering matches what you are looking for.  

Although what happens at PPS is an "interview," different programs have different practices.  Some may treat PPS as a pre-screening activity where they will ask tough questions and try to get to know each applicant so that they can decide who moves to the next round.  Others will treat PPS as an opportunity to showcase their program and attract interested applicants.  It will be tough to determine which is which but if you are extended an offer to interview at PPS, it is always a good idea to ask whether there is anything specific you need to do to prepare for the interview.

To best take advantage of the PPS experience, avoid looking at programs which are located in your city.  Programs will want to use that time to look at applicants more geographically distant and you can always work on scheduling a visit with programs in your town when things are less hectic.  Make sure you make that face-to-face connection, however.  It is strange for a program to receive first contact with a local applicant when the application arrives.  You don't want the program to think they are your last choice or back-up program if they are not.

More about PPS will be posted on this web site in November.