NOTE: This position has been filled for the 2025 – 2026 residency year.

Purpose

The PGY-2 Psychiatry Pharmacy Residency aims to develop residents into high-achieving psychiatry pharmacists who can address complex patient and drug-related problems in the psychiatric patient setting. Residents who leave the program will act as advocates for a chronically undertreated patient population though professionalism and interdisciplinary cooperation. All residents who complete the residency will be prepared to become board certified and thrive in any position in psychiatry pharmacy including patient care, academia and administration.

Program Overview

The Department of Pharmacy Services at the Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) offers an ASHP candidate status PGY-2 psychiatry pharmacy residency. This program is based upon the ASHP/AAPP standards, competency areas, goals and objectives for PGY-2 psychiatry pharmacy residencies and will obtain full accreditation status based upon these criteria.

This is a 52-week program focusing on psychiatric patient care, research and education. The program involves training in a variety of psychiatric focuses such as schizophrenia, affective disorders, substance use disorders amongst many others. Residents of the program will work collaboratively with other mental health professionals in a multidisciplinary team to develop effective therapies to reduce relapse, readmission and mortality. Most rotations will include a psychiatry team model taking place in the inpatient psychiatry units of JHH. The longitudinal/outpatient component of the rotation will take place in the outpatient care centers at JHH. Elective rotations may occur at JHH or off site. Depending on the needs and policies of JHH or rotation site, some resident activities may be switched to remote work from home.

Program Goals

• Optimize psychiatric pharmacological approaches utilizing evidence-based medicine in addition to addressing barriers to care.
• Promote pharmacy services in the psychiatry healthcare setting.
• Understand the etiology, risk factors and epidemiology behind mental health disorders and establish a role in preventing relapse.
• Provide high quality education to patients, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals.
• Demonstrate responsibility to patient care including advocating for mental health initiatives.
• Develop effective communication strategies and skills for working in an inter-disciplinary team.
• Contribute to the existing knowledge base of psychopharmacology by developing research and literature evaluation skills.

Program Overview

This is a 52-week program focusing in psychiatric patient care, research and education. Residents of the program will work collaboratively with other mental healthcare professionals in a multidisciplinary team to develop effective therapies to reduce relapse, readmission and mortality. Most rotations will include a psychiatry team model taking place in the inpatient psychiatry units of the JHH Meyer building. The longitudinal/outpatient component of the rotation will take place in the outpatient care centers at JHH. Elective rotations may occur at JHH or off site. Depending on the needs and policies of JHH or rotation site, some resident activities may be switched to remote work from home.

Staffing/Distributive component

Residents will staff every 2nd week for the first 3 months (internal PGY-1 residents may not require this if criteria met). If resident has been deemed to have met training goals, then they will change to every third weekend staffing schedule. Please see the Staffing webpage for additional information.

Research

Residents will be tasked with developing a self-directed project during the residency year. Projects should be steered towards resident professional interests. The project should be completed in a matter suitable for presentation for professional conferences (e.g. Eastern States) and/or submission to a peer-reviewed publication.

Residents may also be tasked with completing drug class review(s) in line with the departmental needs.

Committee Participation

Residents shall be assigned to a committee. Committee assignment will be determined upon appropriateness given residency objectives and goals. Note that residents may be tasked with additional assignments and projects as an integral member of a committee.

Teaching

Residents are required to provide education to not only patients and pharmacists but on an interdisciplinary basis as well. Some of the educational activities residents shall conduct are listed below. However additional educational opportunities may be added throughout the year.

• Pharmacotherapy Rounds (0.5 CE)
• Pharmacy Department Monthly CE (1.0 CE)
• Formal teaching opportunities at various Maryland pharmacy schools for lecturing in psychiatry pharmacy
• Fourth year psychiatry resident pharmacotherapy lectures
• School of Nursing Psychiatry Nurse Practitioner post-Master’s certificate program lecture(s)
• Precepting (assigned during a learning experience with co-precepting opportunities)
• Topic Discussions

On-Call Coverage

Residents will participate on the in-house on call program. The program operates from 4-10p on weekdays and 7a-7p on weekends/holidays. Coverage duties are rotated between all residents. On-call coverage may include but it not limited to: code response coverage, drug information inquiries, administrative issues, medication history review and other needs as deemed necessary by pharmacy staff. At the end of each shift the resident shall prepare a sign-out which will be disseminated to pharmacy personnel.

Please see the On Call page for additional information.

Attendance at Professional Meetings

The pharmacy department will support residents to attend the ASHP Midyear Clinical meeting and the AAPP Annual Meeting. Additional meetings can be reviewed on a case by case basis.

Paid Time Off (PTO)

The psychiatry pharmacy residency will follow the same paid leave/paid time off policy as outlined in the benefits page.

Requirements for Acceptance to the Program

• PharmD from an ACPE accredited school of pharmacy.
• Completion of an ASHP accredited PGY-1 program prior to starting the PGY-2 psychiatry pharmacy residency.
• Candidates must be eligible for pharmacist licensure in the state of Maryland.
• All applications will be accepted through PHORCAS.

Contact Information

Residency Program Director

Imran Qureshi PharmD, BCPP
Clinical Pharmacy Specialist - Psychiatry
Department of Pharmacy
600 Wolfe Street, Carnegie 180
Baltimore, MD 21287
Email: [email protected]