Left to right: Nurse Practitioner Jacqueline Jordan, Dr. Michael Burke, Dr. Michael Brodeur and Isabella Mortier at the Our Lady of Mercy Life Center in Guilderland
Building on a decades-long collaboration with the Capital Region’s preeminent provider of care to seniors, ACPHS is poised to launch a new residency program in geriatric pharmacotherapy.
The postgraduate year 2 (PGY2) residency, offered in collaboration with The Eddy, will become the 25th such specialty residency in the nation when it gets off the ground on July 1, 2024, according to Residency Program Director Dr. Michael Brodeur. Recruitment will begin in earnest early next month at the Midyear Clinical Meeting of the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists.
“My hope is we’re going to be able to meet with a lot of candidates for the program at ASHP Midyear,” said Dr. Brodeur, an ACPHS professor who has had a clinical practice site at The Eddy for 22 years. The Eddy is the continuing care division of St. Peter’s Health Partners.
Residencies are becoming increasingly desirable for pharmacy graduates looking to work in specialized fields or highly competitive markets. They are seen as a career accelerator, adding experience that would sometimes take several years of work to acquire.
The new program would offer a young pharmacist the opportunity to acquire specialized knowledge in caring for older patients, including medication management, psychopharmacology and deprescribing. Pharmacy graduates would join other residents who are medical doctors and nurse practitioners in programs already at The Eddy/SPHP, where they would serve patients in long-term care, subacute care, hospice/palliative care and a “nursing homes without walls” program that extends to patients’ homes.
Adding pharmacy to the residency programs expands The Eddy’s ability to care for patients and potentially attract talented professionals who may start their careers there, said Dr. Michael Burke, The Eddy’s chief medical officer.
“We have a longstanding collaboration with Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences that’s been a great help to so many vulnerable elders,” Dr. Burke said. “A residency training program will help The Eddy and our community going forward to care for the frail population.”
ACPHS pharmacy students are already engaged in rotations at Eddy locations, as part of their experiential training. Isabella Mortier, currently on rotation at Our Lady of Mercy Life Center, a skilled nursing facility, said she particularly likes the interaction with all types of health-care professionals.
“I really like the whole interprofessional collaboration part of it,” Mortier said.
Financial support for the geriatric pharmacotherapy residency, which offers a stipend of $51,480, comes from The Eddy Foundation.
ACPHS hosts other residencies in endocrinology, cardiology, primary care and ambulatory care.