Describing Canadian hospital pharmacy residencies

A survey of Canadian hospital pharmacy residency programs was designed to collect general information for prospective residents and to identify educational and evaluation methods used in each program for networking between program administrators. The survey was distributed nationally to 39 Canadian Hospital Pharmacy Residency Board-accredited programs. Information collected in the survey indicated that most programs offer a general hospital pharmacy residency, accepting one to two residents per year. Generally, most residency programs which have been in existence for more than 15 years, were affiliated with a university, and were located in a hospital with more than 300 beds. All responding programs offered the Canadian Hospital Pharmacy Residency Board (CHPRB) required rotations in pharmacy administration, drug distribution, drug information, and IV admixtures/nutrition as well as requiring the completion of a residency project. In addition to the required rotations, the most commonly offered clinical rotations included general medicine, intensive care, oncology, and geriatrics. Residents in responding programs were required to attend at least one professional conference, and submit one article for external publication each year. Pharmaceutical care (PC) education and/or PC-related activities were generally offered. Responding programs had similar evaluation processes and requirements of extra-rotational services and working hours. The survey results have been published in a Directory of Canadian Hospital Pharmacy Residency Programs. A detailed reference of these programs has not previously been available. Planning is underway to make the directory avail able on the World Wide Web at Dalhousie's College of Pharmacy Home Page.