(49) The Development of a Post-Graduate Training Committee for Fourth-Year Pharmacy Students

Objective : To enhance professional development resources for fourth year pharmacy students seeking post-graduate training at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy.

Methods: Our Institutional Assessment Committee (IAC) identifies programmatic and organizational areas of improvement through a continuous quality improvement process. The IAC identified that, while overall national PGY-1 residency match rates were relatively stable from 2017-2021 (67 to 69%), our overall school match rates were down-trending (from 81% to 62%). Simultaneously, more graduates of the school were pursuing fellowship positions than in previous years. A group of faculty members formed a Post-Graduate Training Committee (PGTC) to evaluate the support provided to residency and fellowship applicants, and to enhance activities offered to support applicants’ professional development to pursue those post-graduate programs.

Results: The PGTC developed a compendium of resources for residency and fellowship applications. These tools were disseminated to the P4 class using the School of Pharmacy web-learning platform over the course of one year. Synchronous web activities included fellow and resident panels, mock interviews, and curriculum vitae (CV) reviews. Asynchronous activities included webinars regarding CV and letter of intent development, and application preparation. Additional resources that were provided included tools for identifying potential residency/fellowship programs, timeline templates for residency/fellowship preparation, and strength and personality tests for self-awareness.

Conclusions: Through the assessment process, the School of Pharmacy increased the number and type of activities in support of residency applicants and implemented new activities to support fellowship applicants.