Edwards

This is a podcast episode featuring Christy Freiberg and Kaitlyn Phillips discussing tips on transitioning from PGY-1 to PGY-2. They share their own experiences and provide advice for preparing for the transition. They emphasize the importance of connecting with co-residents, program leadership, and potential colleagues. They also discuss the need to start the housing search early and familiarize oneself with the new health system and electronic health record. They highlight the increased autonomy, confidence, and excitement experienced in the second year of training. They recommend utilizing resources such as residency leadership, previous graduates, and professional organizations for support and guidance. The orientation process is also discussed, with an emphasis on becoming familiar with the electronic health record system and receiving specific training related to the chosen specialty. Okay, so we are recording right now. And then, Megan, whenever you are ready, you can begin. Welcome to the ACCP Postgrads podcast, a podcast for Postgrads by Postgrads. My name is Megan Edwards, and I'm a PGY-1 resident at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. We will be joined on the show today by Christy Freiberg and Kaitlyn Phillips, and we will be discussing tips on transitioning from PGY-1 to PGY-2. But before we get started, I would like to provide you all with a little bit of background information on our guest today. So Christy Freiberg is the current Vice Chair of the ACCP National Resident Advisory Committee. She is a PGY-2 solid organ transplant resident at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans. She completed her prerequisite courses at Louisiana State University and obtained her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy. She went on to complete her PGY-1 at Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Christy's post-PGY-2 plans are still to be determined. I'll repeat that. Christy's post-PGY-2 plans are still to be determined, but she loves her role as a pharmacist in abdominal transplant, especially in the ambulatory care setting. Kaitlyn Phillips is our other guest today, and she is a member-at-large on the ACCP National Resident Advisory Committee. Kaitlyn completed an ambulatory care-focused PGY-1 residency at the University of South Carolina, with her primary practice site being a federally qualified health center called Tandem Health. She is now completing an ambulatory care PGY-2 residency at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. After residency, Kaitlyn hopes to obtain a position in academia with the College of Pharmacy and have a primary care practice site. So Christy and Kaitlyn, welcome to the ACCP Post-Grads Podcast. We are super excited to have you and to hear some of the tips that you guys have for transitioning from PGY-1 to PGY-2. Both of you were navigating this process around this time last year, and I can imagine it was both an exciting and stressful time. So my first question is for Kaitlyn. Following match day last year and finding out that you would be completing a second year of training at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, what were some of the first steps that you took to help you prepare for the transition between training programs and health systems? So I think the transition from PGY-1 to PGY-2 is probably easier than from student to PGY-1 because you've had that year under your belt. You kind of know how it goes. I found a lot of value in connecting to my co-residents early on. I had a co-resident in the same I'll repeat that. I have a co-resident who's completing the same program I am. So connecting with her early and trying to get that relationship going was definitely valuable to me. Even if you don't have a co-resident, though, I would recommend connecting with the coordinator and the director really early on and trying to see more about their personalities and what they could offer. If you're moving to a new city, I would recommend finding some things that you want to explore and check out on your way here. As far as transitioning from health systems, it's nice to know what EHR you're going to use, what the HR process is going to look like. So feel free to ask your program leadership what the next few months will look like. I think another thing to look out for is if your program is doing the flipped research model, I would highly recommend finding out what project you're going to be handed and trying to get a synopsis of that as early as possible. Awesome. Thank you, Kaitlin. Kind of along those same lines, did you, in terms of housing, moving from one city to the next, did you start that process early in looking for a new place to live? Oh, yes. That is a great question. In my opinion, the earlier the better. A lot of programs will have resources where they'll say, hey, we've had residents stay at these apartment complexes, and that's a good or a bad thing. So, again, checking in with people who are already at your practice site is great. But I personally would take a day in April, both years, to kind of look around in the new city and see where I wanted to live. So I definitely think the earlier the better there. And some people, I'll just say that, some co-residents decide to live together. So that's another reason to connect to any potential co-residents you'll have early. My next question is for you, Kirstie. What are some of the major differences you notice between your first year of postgraduate training and second year of training? So, yeah. Hi, everyone. I definitely notice three major differences between my first year and second year of training. My first would be autonomy. I was given a lot more autonomy and independence in managing patients, deadlines, presentations, for example, all from the beginning of my PGY-2. It has continued to grow throughout my residency experiences thus far. So definitely autonomy. My second would be my confidence. So my confidence is a little rocky at the beginning of PGY-1, being a new pharmacist and learning to navigate the clinical realm. But I definitely think my confidence, as well as my co-residents, we've all talked about this, continues to improve with each and every rotation. And I thoroughly notice during my rotations, and especially my independent clinical weekend coverage, just how much my confidence has flourished as a practicing clinician between my PGY-1 year and my PGY-2 year of training. And my third major difference that I've noticed would be my excitement and love for the disease state that I'm practicing in. I truly did have so many amazing experiences and different settings as a PGY-1. But as we know, in PGY-1, there's many different settings, many different rotations you'll take. However, practicing as a PGY-2 in a specific disease state, in my case, solid organ transplant, I have specific patient management that I do. And it's truly excited me in my role as a pharmacist and my ambition to continue learning more each and every day to best manage my patients. So definitely autonomy, clinical confidence, and then I would say excitement and ambition for my specific disease state that I'm practicing in. Thank you, Christy. I can certainly resonate with the confidence piece. I'm a PGY-1 resident right now, and I definitely struggled with that at the beginning of the year. And it's improved over the course of my PGY-1 year, but definitely looking forward to that further enhancing throughout my PGY-2 year. So thank you. My next question is for you, Kaitlin. What are some of the resources or support systems that you found to be most helpful in guiding you through the transition process from PGY-1 to PGY-2? Sure. So definitely, like we've talked about, your residency leadership, so your coordinator, your directors, some preceptors, they will definitely be a great resource. They've been through that more than likely. Something else I found helpful, most programs at least have one graduate that they've hired after training. We have several at my program, and they have been very helpful to say, yeah, we had to do that my year, and this is what I did, things like that. Also, shameless plug for our ACCP Resident Advisory Committee, but I'm on a couple of committees like this, and I definitely find it helpful to connect with other people. So, for example, Kirstie is in the exact same position I am. So it's kind of refreshing to lean on her, knowing that we're in the same stage of our life. I would also say that getting involved in a state organization, especially if you're moving to a different state, can really connect you with people who want to uplift you and support you, maybe residents at different programs that are doing the same specialty area. Definitely spread your wings and start building your network now. I think that is a great thing. Thank you, Kaitlin. I think what you mentioned about reaching out to somebody who graduated from the program and is a staff pharmacist at a hospital that you're going to be a PGY2 resident at is a great idea. My next question is for you, Kirstie. What portions of the PGY2 orientation did you find the – I'm going to repeat that. What portions of the PGY2 orientation did you find to be the most beneficial or portions that you think should have the highest priority, knowing that baseline knowledge is different than it was coming into a new health system as a PGY1? Yeah. So, first for me, like Kaitlin mentioned earlier, would be management of the electronic health record or electronic medical record, EMR. So my EMR system as a PGY1 was different than my current PGY2, so it did take time to adapt navigating the system. But since I had that baseline knowledge of working up a patient, finding out their problems, assessing and making up plans, it really was just learning how to navigate that EMR versus gaining that baseline knowledge that you gained as a PGY1. Additionally, in my case, in solid organ transplant, I received orientation boot camp. So during the month of orientation for me, I had specific weekly topic discussions that are at the core of management of solid organ transplant patients. So having that boot camp really helped reiterate and enhance my baseline knowledge of solid organ transplant management. So I think for any disease state transitioning from a PGY1 to a PGY2, potentially having those weekly topic discussions just to enhance that baseline knowledge you already have for your specific disease state would be really valuable, and it was very valuable in my case. And then lastly, I think orientation to the different teams and practicing providers was really important to establish relationships prior to rotation experiences and working clinical weekends, just to gain that trust and relationship with the provider so that when they see you, they recognize you, know that you're going to be their pharmacist, and just to develop that relationship. My program did – sorry, I'll rephrase that. My program also did topic discussions for orientation. For me, it's AMCARE, so diabetes, COPD, things like that. And I also really appreciated that to make sure everyone's on the same playing field and make sure everyone's baseline knowledge is where it should be. So I definitely recommend that for orientation. I think that's fantastic advice. Even if you're going into a program that doesn't have an official process for that, I think it's something that you can do on your own for sure. My next question's for you, Kaitlin. Going from training as a PGY-1 in South Carolina to training as a PGY-2 in Tennessee, you obviously had to obtain licensure in a different state. Can you provide any advice related to reciprocity of licensure and how to best navigate that process? Absolutely. So this is pretty generic advice, but the earlier, the better. So maybe not right on match day, but pretty soon after, I would make yourself familiar with the licensure process for the state you're going in because some states require a lot more documentation and just things to brush up on than others. You also want to take the MPJE for that state as early as feasible. Don't take it in March. You know, give yourself time to study. But if you were to not pass it, you would want to give yourself time to where you can take it again. So I would recommend plugging yourself again to those resources that are at your program and ask them if they have study guides. Ask them for tips on how to get licensure. They should be more than willing to help you. So definitely use your resources wisely. A lot of times the state's board of pharmacy will have like a law Q&A section or a really easy place for you to find the laws for you to study. So that would be a great place to start is just going on the state's board of pharmacy website and seeing what you can find out from there. And that gives you the opportunity to ask good questions to the people that you're about to go train with for the licensure process because they've already been through it as well. Great. Thank you, Caitlin. So get started on that process as soon as possible. Kirstie, my next question is for you. Reflecting back on your experience from a year ago, is there anything you wish you had known or done differently during your transition from PGY-1 to PGY-2? So I was going to say to take the law exam as soon as possible, but we've already spoken about that for your new state if you are transitioning. I think something else that reflecting back what I wish I would have done a little bit differently is I've lived in New Orleans my whole life. So moving to Houston for a year for PGY-1 was a really exciting experience for me and my co-residents. A few were from Houston as well, and then the others were from out of state. So we got really, really close and did a lot of activities together. But I think going from that month, going from PGY-1 to PGY-2, I was very stressed about moving back to New Orleans, getting acquired to the new hospital, and I didn't really enjoy my last couple weeks in Houston as much as I would have liked to with my co-residents. So I think what I would have done going back would have been giving myself some grace in my transition process and realizing not everything needed to be perfect the moment I arrived at my new center. I obviously wanted to be prepared, but I wish I would have enjoyed my time a little bit more the last couple weeks and spent that time with my co-residents because they were and will always have been such a huge part of my life for my PGY-1. And then going into PGY-2, I wish I would have spent a little bit more time with my new co-residents at the beginning. We spend a lot of time together now, but at the beginning, everyone was very stressed, figuring out what's going on, how to move throughout this new process, new hospital. So I think just giving yourself grace from the transition from PGY-1 to PGY-2 is something that I would recommend because it's going to be stressful no matter what. So you should definitely enjoy where you are at the time and just look forward to where you will be for PGY-2. I think that's great advice to give yourself grace and to kind of just take a step back and let yourself enjoy it. And my final question is for you, Caitlin. What is the most important tip you have for pharmacy residents who are about to transition to their second year of training? Yeah, so my tip that I would give myself this time last year is to find the people who are passionate about what you are passionate about and dig into them and connect with them. So for me, that's the ACCP ambulatory care PRN. And the reason I say that is because during your PGY-2 especially, you are really setting yourself up for your entire career. So it's a great place to start when you have those mentors and resources at your program around you to. Sorry. It's great to have those people around you that can support you, and it feels a little less lonely, I guess, when you're with other people that are part of your program, like your preceptors and your leadership. So for me, that's the AMCARE PRN. There are tons of PRNs, but any organization that you can plug into and start your network with, I think, is great advice. Kirstie, I'd like to hear what you have to say about that, like what your tip is. Yeah, I would, too. Wait, give me one second. I'm so sorry. My nephew just got here, and he's screaming. One second. Okay, sorry. So I would say that the most important tip I have for pharmacy residents who are about to transition to your second year, I think I would just to re-echo to enjoy your year. Like this year is going to be difficult. You're going to have more autonomy. You're going to be more independent. You're really going to be that practicing clinician. But I think enjoying it and really soaking up all the knowledge is one of the most important factors. Because after this year, as a PGY2, you're done with training. You will be that clinician and that pharmacist. So I've really tried throughout this year to embrace my topic discussions, embrace my patient management, embrace working clinical weekends and covering multiple services. Because it really is truly your last learning experience, in a way, under preceptors before you are that practicing clinician who will then eventually be someone else's preceptor. So I think really soaking up all the knowledge that you can is the best advice that I can give. Once you are done with PGY2, you still will be learning. You'll still be gaining information. You'll still be learning new things. But this is really the last time you'll be, in a way, training. So to really gain that knowledge that you can throughout this year. Thank you both. I think that's fantastic advice. Both finding an organization home that you can plug into and then also just really enjoying your PGY2 year and that process as well. I think some of us think, oh, we can't wait for it to be over with and for us to actually be in our careers and be done with residency. But I think you bring up a great point where it's important to enjoy that year and to soak it up, all of it up, and to not rush it. So I think that's a great note to end on. That includes our episode. Thank you so much, Kirstie and Caitlin, for sharing your insights into how to successfully navigate the process of transitioning from PGY1 to PGY2. And thank you all for listening to this month's episode of the ACCP Postgrads podcast, a podcast for postgrads by postgrads. For more episodes and other resident and fellow resources, visit our website at www.accp.com. Thank you.