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Curriculum

Clinical training

As a PGY-2 oncology resident, much of your time is devoted to comprehensive training as a member of the interdisciplinary team. A breadth of learning experiences has been designed to increase and refine your clinical competency, provide evidence-based pharmacotherapeutic care plans, and develop your confidence as an independent practitioner.

Direct patient care services allow you to provide patient-specific pharmaceutical care services. Responsibilities include development of individualized care and monitoring plans for various patient populations. After coaching, instruction and modeling by a preceptor, you are assessed and constructively critiqued on how to further refine the delivery of evidence-based recommendations.

Drug information is provided to patients, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other allied health professionals. Feedback is provided to enhance drug information-retrieval skills using a variety of resources and modalities.

Pharmacokinetic monitoring is provided to eligible patients. You serve as information resources by providing recommendations for appropriate assay procedures, evaluation of serum drug concentrations, and appropriate documentation in the medical record.

Required learning experiences

The PGY-2 Pharmacy Residency in Oncology at Mayo Clinic Hospital — Rochester is designed to provide a diverse experience for the future clinician. Required learning experiences include:

Area Length
Orientation 4 weeks
Bone marrow transplantation (combined acute care and ambulatory care)

6 weeks total:
3 weeks acute care
3 weeks ambulatory care

Hematology I (lymphoma and myeloma) 3 weeks
Hematology II (leukemia) 3 weeks
Hematology ambulatory care 4 weeks total - shared between two disease state clinics
Medical oncology acute care 3 weeks
Medical oncology ambulatory care 8 weeks total: 4 weeks each in two different disease state clinics
Teaching rotation 4 weeks
Oncology investigational drug service (IDS) Longitudinal, 4 months
Oncology leadership and management Longitudinal, 12 months
Staffing (inpatient and outpatient infusion center) Longitudinal, 12 months
(average 24 hours/month)
Medication use evaluation / quality improvement project Longitudinal, 12 months
Presentations Longitudinal, 12 months
Research project Longitudinal, 12 months

Elective learning experiences

Elective learning experiences are available in a variety of inpatient and outpatient settings that allow you to tailor the program to your needs. The list below includes popular elective learning experiences past PGY-2 oncology residents completed.

  • Medical oncology ambulatory care - different disease state than required rotation
  • Intensive care in the immunocompromised host
  • Infectious diseases in the immunocompromised host
  • Pediatric hematology/oncology
  • Pharmacogenomics
  • Hematology III (acute care; hematology complications)
  • Palliative care
  • CAR-T
  • Repeat required rotations

Additional elective learning experiences may be available upon request.

Medication use evaluation and quality improvement training

All residents are required to complete a medication use evaluation (MUE) and accompanying quality improvement (QI) project during the residency year. The goal of the MUE-QI project is to develop a systematic process designed to determine, improve, and maintain the appropriate and effective use of medications. You will be afforded a mentor and will be required to complete QI education and training through the Mayo Clinic Quality Academy.

Staffing commitment

All PGY-2 residents provide an average of 24 hours of staffing every four weeks. Staffing may include a combination of weekends (in the inpatient setting), holidays, and weekdays (in the Gonda 10 Infusion Center) to maintain operational and clinical pharmacy competency and knowledge. No formal on-call program exists.

Curriculum enhancements

The Department of Pharmacy and Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences are committed to developing and maintaining the best education programs. The curriculum and other aspects of this program are assessed constantly and changed as necessary to ensure the highest quality training.