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Geisinger Community Medical Center (Scranton) Pharmacy Residency

Expand your clinical expertise and improve your communication with patients with Geisinger’s Pharmacy Residency at a busy, diverse hospital in Scranton, Pa.   

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About us

A career in pharmacy is about so much more than dispensing drugs. You need a deep and evolving knowledge of a vast array of ever-changing medications and their myriad potential interactions — and the skills to communicate this knowledge to patients who trust you with their health. Beyond that, you may want to acquire the special tools needed to work in emergency and trauma care and other specialized clinical settings.

Geisinger’s Pharmacy Residency (PGYI) program will give you the skills you need. Our Pharmacy Residency builds on your Doctor of Pharmacy education, with the goal of preparing you for board certification and for postgraduate year-2 Pharmacy Residency (PGY2) training.

Our goals are:

  • To provide you with the training and experience to develop professional expertise as a health system pharmacy practitioner
  • To cultivate you as a competent, innovative practitioner who’s ready to provide comprehensive pharmaceutical services across the continuum of care
  • To train you to effectively research, analyze and communicate drug information

The PGY1 Pharmacy Residency at Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton, Pa., will help you develop every aspect of yourself as a pharmacist — your clinical skills, your professional goals and your personal growth. And from day 1, you’ll be treated as a trusted, valued colleague on a pharmacy team that’s committed to delivering the highest possible quality of patient care. You’ll work with department members who have full-time practice and teaching responsibilities and serve as preceptors for the learning experiences.

As our pharmacy resident, you’ll be immersed in a rich and varied curriculum that includes:

  • Learning experiences designed to develop your skills and competence in providing evidence-based, patient-centered medication therapy management with interdisciplinary teams
  • A structure and areas of emphasis tailored to your knowledge, skills and career aspirations
  • Elective learning experiences that allow you to pursue interests related to your career goals
  • Opportunities to be involved in all pharmacy activities, including direct patient care, pharmacy consults, medical emergencies, and various projects and committees
  • Teaching, research and other scholarly endeavors that will enhance your professional development

Geisinger has a strong tradition of research. As our PGY1 pharmacy resident, you’ll also be expected to take an active role in our research culture. Through this residency, you’ll become a lifelong learner who’s passionate about the latest research and innovations — and ready to contribute to them.

We hope you’ll apply to join us.

 

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About Geisinger

Geisinger is among the nation’s leading providers of value-based care, serving 1.2 million people in urban and rural communities across Pennsylvania. Founded in 1915 by philanthropist Abigail Geisinger, the non-profit system generates $10 billion in annual revenues across 134 care sites — including 10 hospital campuses, and Geisinger Health Plan, with 600,000 members in commercial and government plans.

The Geisinger College of Health Sciences educates more than 5,000 medical professionals annually and conducts more than 1,400 clinical research studies. With 26,000 employees, including 1,600 employed physicians, Geisinger is among Pennsylvania’s largest employers with an estimated economic impact of $14 billion to the state’s economy.

On March 31, 2024, Geisinger became the first member of Risant Health, a new nonprofit charitable organization created to expand and accelerate value-based care across the country. 

Our home: Northeastern Pennsylvania

Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) is a great place to live, with safe neighborhoods, an affordable cost of living and access to recreational activities. NEPA is close to New York City and Philadelphia, giving you access to major cities in just a few hours. Overall, our communities are a good bet for living a stress-free, healthy lifestyle. And more importantly, NEPA is a place where you can make a difference.

About Geisinger Location

Program overview

Required core learning experiences

Most of these Pharmacy Residency learning experiences are 1 month long, but duration could be modified based on your interests and preceptor availability. 

  • Orientation
  • Internal medicine
  • Antimicrobial stewardship
  • Emergency medicine
  • Critical care
  • Internal medicine 2
  • Cardiology
  • Clinical pharmacy practice and precepting
Required longitudinal learning experiences

  • Drug information and health care education: 11-month experience
  • Major research project: 12-month experience
  • Pharmacy administration and medication safety: 11-month experience
  • Inpatient pharmacy staffing: 11-month experience
Elective learning experiences

Most of these experiences are also 1 month long. But, like required core experiences, these can also be changed depending on your interests. That, in turn, could change the number of electives you can select. Our goal is to provide you with a pharmacy residency that’s tailored to your interests and goals.

  • Pharmacy leadership
  • Infectious diseases
  • Emergency medicine 2
  • Trauma services
  • Critical care 2
  • Palliative and pain management
Department of Pharmacy

The Geisinger Community Medical Center Department of Pharmacy’s practice model involves integration of distribution and clinical activities at the patient care level supported by centralized distribution, support functions and management systems.

You’ll work with pharmacists practicing in:

  • Internal medicine
  • Critical care medicine
  • Antimicrobial stewardship
  • Emergency medicine
  • Cardiology
  • Trauma services
  • Pharmacy administration
  • Outpatient oncology
  • Operating room services

Our pharmacists are involved in:

  • Drug therapy management
  • Multidisciplinary patient care
  • Decentralized pharmacy practice
  • Pharmacokinetic consultations
  • Anticoagulation consultations
  • Adult and pediatric code response
  • Medication utilization and outcome evaluation
  • Medical, nursing and pharmacy staff education programs

Pharmacy students from regional schools of pharmacy rotate through our hospital and clinics as part of their core hospital pharmacy, clinical pharmacy and ambulatory care rotations.

In other words, you’ll be exposed to a tremendous variety of experiences and potential career paths

Learning experience

Orientation

Your 4-week orientation introduces you to the staff and duties of the central inpatient pharmacy, as well as the cancer center and operating room (OR) satellites. While preparing for and completing the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) and Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination (MPJE), you’ll also complete computer training; IV room training and competencies; Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) certifications; departmental anticoagulation, pharmacokinetics, antimicrobial stewardship and code certifications; and Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) training.
Longitudinal staffing experience

This experience takes place in the central pharmacy department. You’ll gain experience in medication order verification, drug information, pharmacokinetic consults and follow-up dosing, anticoagulation consults and follow-up dosing, checking of the pharmaceutical product and working as a team with other pharmacists and technicians. And you’ll gain practical experience by providing pharmaceutical care to a patient population that ranges from birth to 100+ years of age.
Drug information and healthcare education

The drug information rotation is a required, longitudinal rotation during which you’ll work with preceptors to identify drug information questions/requests. The goal is to hone your skills in providing pharmaceutical and drug information to the hospital’s pharmacy, nursing, medical staff and patients. One of your primary responsibilities will be to provide concise, applicable and timely responses to our staff and to work with them to resolve problems related to drug therapy.
Internal medicine

The internal medicine learning experience will help you learn to effectively and efficiently collect pertinent patient information from a variety of sources. You’ll be able to identify and resolve medication-related problems, generate a problem list and create a plan of care with appropriate monitoring for outcomes and adverse effects. A strong emphasis will be placed on physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology.
Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS)

This experience will teach you the rationale and execution of an antimicrobial stewardship program in a health system. You’ll team up with the infectious diseases pharmacists and physicians to optimize pharmacotherapy outcomes as related to AMS/infectious diseases (ID). The experience incorporates elements of ID, AMS, infection control, pharmacokinetic management of antimicrobials, transitions of care and outpatient antimicrobial management.
Infectious diseases (ID)

During this elective, you’ll use patient-specific data, antimicrobial pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic principles, microbiological culture and sensitivity results to optimize antimicrobial drug therapy regimens for patients on the ID consult service. You’ll round with the ID physicians, be responsible for monitoring patients on the ID consult service and have designated time with the microbiology lab and infection control departments.
Cardiology

This rotation is focused on optimizing medication therapy in cardiovascular medicine. You’ll work closely with cardiologists, nursing and other providers. The emphasis is on management of drug therapy in hospitalized cardiac patients in a cardiac step-down care setting, a cardiac procedure unit including cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology labs, and cardiovascular arrest and emergencies.
Emergency medicine

Geisinger Community Medical Center is a Level II trauma center. During this rotation, you’ll participate in bedside medication selection and dosing for procedural sedation, rapid sequence induction (RSI), pediatric/adult codes and pediatric/adult alerts (Level I and II traumas, sepsis, ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), pulmonary embolism response team (PERT) alerts and stroke alerts) alongside emergency medicine (EM) team. You’ll also procure and compound emergency medications for critically ill patients at bedside.
Critical care

You’ll complete patient profile reviews and prepare therapy recommendations as you participate in bedside rounding as part of an interdisciplinary team of physicians, residents, PA-Cs, nursing and other specialties. You’ll engage in core topic discussions with your preceptor and colleagues and develop skills needed to provide pharmacy services as part of the critical care team.
Advanced critical care

You’ll continue to build on the skills you learned in your first critical care experience. You and your preceptor will emphasize the development of resident independence during interdisciplinary rounds and management of day-to-day pharmacist responsibilities such as order verification, emergency response and drug information questions.
Trauma services

This 4-week learning experience is centered at Geisinger Community Medical Center’s Level II trauma center. Some of the core discussion topics include anticoagulation reversal, multi modal pain management in the trauma patient, hemorrhagic, distributive and neurogenic shock, traumatic brain injury (management of cerebral perfusion pressure, paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity), craniofacial trauma, open orthopedic and penetrating injury of the extremities and penetrating abdominal injury. Your experience is designed to mirror the pharmacist’s role, responsibilities and spectrum of pharmaceutical care services in this environment.

Frequently asked questions

What is a PGY1 pharmacy residency program?

Geisinger's PGY1 Pharmacy Residency Program is designed to train and educate pharmacists in the fundamentals of exemplary contemporary pharmacy practice in organized healthcare systems. The residency focuses on total pharmacy practice, including the concepts and philosophies of contemporary pharmaceutical care. The program builds upon practice experience and academic education and provides the foundation of practice competence. The residency will provide experiences and knowledge that can give the graduate's career a significant boost. For the more seasoned pharmacist, the residency can accelerate a career move to a higher level of practice.
How is the residency offered at Geisinger Community Medical Center?

The residency is a full-time, 12-month program that requires a commitment of at least 40 hours per week and is in compliance with all American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) duty hour requirements. The residency is conducted through the accomplishment of formal learning goals and objectives. The start date is June 19, 2023.
What are the staffing requirements?

Pharmacy residents are required to staff the inpatient pharmacy area approximately 4 hours per week after daily rotation requirements, and 16 hours every other weekend. The work is structured so that the experiences are discussed and assessed against learning objectives. Assignments are made based on skill and experience needs of the resident. At Geisinger, we believe that staffing experiences are an important part of meeting the residency goals and objectives, and that the absence of such experiences diminishes the resident's clinical growth and practice maturity in the program.
What is the stipend, and what benefits are included?

The stipend is $47,476 per year. This is paid in 2-week intervals and is taxed as salary. Other benefits include an excellent healthcare package and paid time off. You’ll also receive paid administrative leave for educational meetings (the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting in December and Eastern States Residents Conference). You’ll also have a dedicated workspace with access to a personal computer.
What services are provided by the Department of Pharmacy?

The Department of Pharmacy at Geisinger Community Medical Center consists of approximately 52 employees, of whom 34 are pharmacists. The department practice model involves integration of distribution and clinical activities at the patient care level supported by centralized distribution, support functions and management systems. Pharmacists from decentralized locations provide expertise in anticoagulation, internal medicine, critical care medicine, antimicrobial stewardship and infectious disease, emergency medicine, trauma services and cardiology. Our pharmacists are involved in drug therapy management, multidisciplinary patient care, pharmacokinetic consultations, anticoagulation consultations, adult and pediatric code response, medication utilization and outcome evaluation, and medical, nursing and pharmacy staff education programs.
What teaching opportunities exist?

Residents participate in a variety of teaching opportunities throughout the residency year and will develop a broad range of teaching skills. As part of the Pharmacy Department, the resident will provide numerous educational programs for a variety of healthcare professionals. These opportunities include presenting formal lectures, providing informal in-services and precepting pharmacy students. In addition, residents are required to prepare and present an Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) accredited continuing education program, to prepare and present an educational poster at the ASHP Midyear Meeting, and to present a platform presentation at the Eastern States Conference for Pharmacy Residents and Preceptors.
What are some useful links related to the program?

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