Integrating Precepting into your Daily Practice

Abstract

It’s 11:00 a.m. on a Thursday morning. You have just completed rounds and are scrambling to catch up with orders awaiting verification in your queue. Your pager goes off, and the physician on the other end of the line would like you to discuss a phenytoin level and the plan for continued therapy. While you are on the phone, a nurse asks you if insulin and norepinephrine are compatible. A beep from your smartphone alerts you that you are now 5 minutes late for your annual performance review with your boss. You take action on all the critical issues and proceed to your meeting where you are asked to begin taking pharmacy residents on your service. You think to yourself, “How am I ever going to do my job effectively and manage a resident at the same time?” In 2006, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) published a position statement recommending that all pharmacists with direct patient care practice be required to complete formal postgraduate residency training.1 Echoing this sentiment, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) has proposed a resolution that by the year 2020 all graduating pharmacists will complete an ASHP-accredited pharmacy residency prior to undertaking direct patient care practice.2 At this time, there is not program capacity to fulfill these requirements. In 2012, there were 4,204 applicants for postgraduate year one (PGY1) and postgraduate year two (PGY2) pharmacy residencies. Of those applicants, 1,610 went unmatched with a residency program.3 Mandated residency training coupled with residency position shortages will require the creation of new residency programs as well as the expansion of existing residency programs. To keep up with this demand, preceptors must be able to effectively and efficiently care for patients and educate the future practitioners of our profession. This difficult task can be achieved through incorporation of a few principles into daily practice.