Pharmacy Residency Training Programs

Suzanne Turner: If you look at Lee Health and you look on the website and you see that we're 1,500 beds, and we're 5 hospitals and we're this really big health system, but I still tell people we're the small community hospital feel. We really still feel like a smaller community hospital in the way we treat each other like family, but yet we have that little bit larger academic field because we do have the FSU medical residency programs.

John Armistead: I think doing a pharmacy residency at Lee Health offers a wide range of contemporary practice opportunities that allows a resident to really explore what area of practice they want to go into and really find that practice at a really high level, such that they can experience what it would be like as they move into the profession of pharmacy.

Mary Lynn Skruc...: It prepared me for practice by essentially being able to do everything. In my time at Lee Health, when I work here, I do emergency medicine, I do oncology now, I work in the intensive care unit. I truly feel I have a completely well-rounded experience and I'm ready for every emergency or anything that comes my way.

Shelley Kearns: As a student, I had a lot of different opportunities to go through different rotational experiences. Our residency director is great at making sure that our schedules align with what we're interested in, but also something that we haven't experienced.

Megan Patch: I came in with a strong interest in infectious diseases and developed an interest in pediatrics as well. I was able to tailor my own program to include pediatrics. I was able to staff within the pediatric hospital. Now I'm a pediatric clinical specialist with a focus in infectious diseases. So I was able to combine the best of both worlds. And the Lee Health residency program allows that flexibility to really make that happen.

Kristen Crawfor...: One of the big draws to this program is the retention rates. So for the PGY1 program, we keep about 40% of our residents, stay on as employees after they complete their residency. So not only was I going to get world-class training, but I had a good opportunity at a job when I was done.

Julianna Hennig...: I decided to stay here for our community-based residency because of the great relationship I built with the pharmacist here, the unique community-based opportunities that were available for their rotations, and the different dynamic areas like primary care and oncology, specialty pharmacy. And here in the Lee Pharmacy, which focuses on filling prescriptions for discharge patients. So there was a lot of unique opportunities that were offered.

Catalina Acosta...: I will definitely say that this program is very unique in a way that it has a very strong leadership component to it. It is a longitudinal learning experience. And it's very unique because the resident gets to see many facets of the pharmacist role, not just in clinical knowledge, but in decision-making at the administration level.

John Armistead: The mission of pharmacy practice at Lee Health is optimizing patient outcomes through interdisciplinary medication management. The pharmacy residents at Lee Health provide tremendous value for patient care provision. But in addition to that, they really enthused our pharmacists in being able to educate new learners. So we enjoy the opportunity to have residents with us, keeps us on our toes, makes us better pharmacists and better care providers.

John Armitstead: Our residency program at Lee Health has been with us for over a decade, and it's firmly established as an educational service provided at Lee Health. Our residents are embraced by other disciplines and involved in patient care delivery at the highest level.

Mary Lynn Skruc...: Lee Health's commitment to mentorship is truly something unique. They give us mentors, but I also feel I have a bunch of unofficial mentors that have helped me along the way. And now that I work here, I have helped other residents and students in their journey.

Anson Phettepla...: At Lee Health, we have six outpatient pharmacies. They are focused on transitioning patients from the bedside to home. And some of our extended services are fully deployed meds to beds program. We offer immunizations as well as patient education.

Our community pharmacies are attached to a health system, and that gives us an opportunity to try to begin managing patients while they're in an inpatient and help them transition home.

Catalina Acosta: Another thing that's really interesting about this program and that caught my attention when I was applying was the fact that we have several hospitals within our health system, and so a resident is able to practice with different teams, different patient populations, and get a very comprehensive learning experience.

Erica Bergeron: I'm actually from Oklahoma. I chose Lee Health because of all the different experiences. And we're also a trauma center, so we're able to participate in all the traumas that come through. So that's a really interesting experience.

Suzanne Turner: Some of the things that are unique are the opportunity to complete a teaching certificate program that we have here in house that really sets my residents up to be preceptors.

And we have some writing opportunities. We have a newsletter that is published three times a month and is ID, critical care, and pediatrics. Our PGY2 residents are in charge of that, but my PGY1 residents contribute. It's read by physicians, by providers, it's accredited for CE. So my residents get that opportunity to really practice their scientific writing and with a great readership, and that's not something I see at a lot of programs.