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.

Roseman residency history file

On Friday, June 15th, all Roseman University P3s received an email containing a document describing where students from Roseman University have done residency in previous years.  The document also described where our faculty trained and where they are currently affiliated with residency programs.  While it is not possible to provide names of alumni, some faculty have kept in touch with these former students and can contact them on your behalf.

Scramble blues?

We've learned in the last few weeks that nothing has gone completely according to plans in the scramble.  It made sense to us that programs would want to see information from scramblers populate in their PhORCAS "inbox" starting on March 25th.  What happened instead is that perhaps programs were waiting to hear from those still interested in an effort to save students the time and expense of loading a bunch of stuff into PhORCAS without prior contact with the program.  We feel this is unfortunate and it may have put some students who were trying not to be a nuisance at a disadvantage over the "squeaky wheels."  We did hear of a few cases of programs responding with "don't email us" or "don't call us" so this was definitely not always the case.  We also wondered why students didn't seem to be given the opportunity to make changes to their pre-match application without forking over another $25 per program.  Dr. Sebranek spoke with Janet Teeters at ASHP last week and made her aware of this issue.  This is something they were definitely interested in hearing about.  Ms. Teeters couldn't confirm whether the cause of programs disappearing from PhORCAS before April 1 was the filling of positions or programs already receiving plenty of inquiries/applications.  She mentioned that the moratorium on offers before April 1 may become mandatory in the future.

What to do now?

Option 1: Keep your eyes peeled for new positions coming open in PhORCAS.  Since there is no cost to the programs, it would seem they would want to put their openings in there.  In case inertia is the issue, keep your eyes peeled in other places as well such as the pharmacy association email distribution lists and web sites which display openings (especially ACCP).  Continue to let people in your area and in your speciality (ex. managed care) know you are still looking.

Option 2: Start planning for next year.  Look for job openings in areas which are related to your practice site of interest.  Think about casting a wide geographic net and don't forget about rural areas where demand might be higher.  One Roseman student started working per diem for a hospital shortly after graduation.  This position eventually turned into a full-time night-shift position. That position eventually turned into a 9 - 5 M-F shift in a hospital in another city.

Hang in there and continue to feel free to reach out to Dr. Sebranek or myself for assistance.

Are you ready to interview?

Pharmacy residency interviews usually begin in late January and continue through the month of February.  If you've made the first cut based on your goals, achievements and the support of your mentors, congratulations!  Now the fun begins.  Here is a list of questions to help you determine if you are ready for the interview process.

1. Do you have your "elevator speech" prepared in response to the request to "tell me a little about yourself"?
2. Do you have your list of good scenarios prepared for a behavioral interviewing approach?  Can you come up with a story to describe a time when you: were shot down, made a successful intervention, were challenged by a patient, disagreed with a supervisor, had a conflict with a teammate...?
3. Do you feel confident that you won't appear stupid if you don't know the answer to a clinical question when you aren't sure of the correct answer?
4. Can you describe your weaknesses without using personality flaws?  For example, telling the interview team that you are always late is a problem.
5. Has anyone checked your mannerisms lately in high-pressure scenarios to make sure you don't do anything which is distracting or confusing (ex. use of "um," playing with hair, picking at clothing, grimmacing, laughing/smiling at the wrong time, etc.)?
6. Have you practiced your handshake with someone who will be completely honest with you about whether you've given a good handshake?
7. Have you prepared your list of questions for the programs and do you feel confident that the types of questions you will ask will reflect upon you favorably (ex. avoid "why did the program let a resident go last year?")?
8. Can you clearly describe your own preferences for a program in terms of the amount of flexibility, degree of autonomy, quantity/frequency of feedback, and exposure to certain activities like teaching and management projects?

The good news is that there is still plenty of time to make improvements to all of these items!  The bad news is that some work will be required on your part.  Don't forget about the opportunity to participate in the Mock Interview Workshop at the University of Utah on January 16th.  The preceptors/faculty know to look for the items on this list and can give you honest feedback without holding anything against you.  You only have until Friday the 11th to indicate that you want to participate.  Check your email inbox for the Surveymonkey invitation which was sent last Friday; you must fill it out to attend.

Copy and Paste? Not a bad idea but fix the formatting

I'm posting again today because I've identified an interesting problem. Some of the institution names are very long and complicated.  Here's an example: University of North Carolina Hospitals and Clinics/UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.  I talked to a bunch of people from this institution shortly after their name changed and they often forgot the "Eshelman School of Pharmacy" partly because it was new.  This was an amusing joke to the offenders, but it is not taken the same way when someone from the outside messes things up.

The point I'm trying to make is that the people at these institutions will know the name of their facility intimately and will notice it immediately if you refer to it as a "Medical Center" when it is a "Hospital" or when you leave out "at Brooklyn," "at Stanford" or "& Trauma Center" at the end of the institution's name.  Misspellings will also leave a negative impression.  When in doubt, use the name from the ASHP residency database as that is the name they will use in PhORCAS and the Match.  Include the whole lengthy drawn out name, even though it doesn't fit very well on the page.  Leaving something out could offend the wrong person and you never know...

This advice applies to your letters of intent and attached letters used by your references.

Gearing up for Midyear!

Step 1: Registration

The base meeting registration fee is $255 for students who are members and $355 for students who are not members of ASHP.  This fee provides you with access to all of the following:

• Keynote presentation (Bill Clinton)
• Educational symposia from Sunday - Thursday (except ambulatory "intensive study")
• The residency showcase
• All poster sessions
• All industry exhibits

There are other activities associated with additional fees which range betwen $80 and $295 each.  Many are courses for pharmacists about how to run a residency program (RLS) and courses for pharmacists needing to recertify for a certain credential (like BCACP).  The only one of these activities targeted towards students is the board prep on Saturday. 

Step 2: Personal Placement Service

This is a separate registration and fee which allows you to interview with employers and/or residency programs at the meeting.  The fee for students is $125.  Not all residency programs participate in PPS and PPS participation does not guarantee you will be granted an interview with your desired site at the meeting.  You need to contact them, provide a copy of your CV and then be invited to interview at PPS.  To check whether a program you are considering is participating in PPS, please check this online list.  This list is expected to change frequently between now and the meeting.  Not all programs listed are recruiting for PGY-1 residencies so it might be advisable to contact them directly.

If you are considering PPS, register early so that potential employers/programs can find you and contact you.  Setting up interviews if you register for PPS on site might be problematic if all of the interview slots have been booked by candidates who registered in advance.

Step 3: Network

Many colleges of pharmacy and large health systems conduct social functions at the Midyear in order to develop new contacts and reconnect with alumni.  Roseman's social function will be held Monday night at the Luxor and is open to all Roseman students registered for the meeting.  For other social events, it is recommended that you wait to be invited rather than spontaneously dropping in on a social event.  If you do attend, make sure you are wearing your most formal business attire.  Students in cocktail attire will stand out in a bad way.

Step 4: Residency Showcase

Start with a list of which programs strongly interest you.  Make sure you have researched each one thoroughly using the ASHP Residency Directory and the program's own web site.  Write down questions that you want to ask each program.  Not all programs should be asked the same questions since each will have different information available in the directory and on their web site.  Visit the Midyear web site to figure out which program will be in the showcase on which day since different programs have booth space on each day.  The showcase will be open on Monday from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m., on Tuesday from 8:00 - 11:00 a.m., and on Tuesday from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.  As of this posting, a list of dates for specific programs was not available; however, in "early November" per the web site, ASHP will provide an Excel file which can be sorted and filtered to help you figure out how to find the programs you are wishing to talk to by booth number.  There will also be an interactive floor plan map which can help you find exactly where on the very large exhibit floor each program will be.