The mission of the Department of Pharmacy is to provide high value, patient-centered care. We will promote best practices that drive safe, effective, and timely medication therapy through all transitions of care. We will cultivate collaboration, innovation, education and career growth through employee engagement and practice advancement initiatives.
The learning experiences will include a series of educational activities designed to incorporate all aspects of pharmacy practice with guidance from the preceptor. A customized individual resident plan and calendar will be developed for each resident based upon career goals and interests. This residency site agrees that no person at this site will solicit, accept or use any ranking-related information from any residency applicant.
Purpose Statement: PGY1 pharmacy residency programs build on Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) education and outcomes to contribute to the development of clinical pharmacists responsible for medication-related care of patients with a wide range of conditions, eligible for board certification, and eligible for postgraduate year two (PGY2) pharmacy residency training.
The PGY1 Residency consists of a series of learning experiences that span a 52-week period. Specific learning experiences and goals will be accomplished in discrete blocks of time, while others will occur longitudinally throughout the duration of the residency. Residency time will be generally structured as follows:
| Orientation/Training |
4 weeks |
| Residency Learning Experiences |
44 weeks |
| Conferences |
1 week |
| Time Off/Holidays |
14 days, not contiguous |
| Interviews |
3 days |
Required Rotational Experiences:
| Health System Administration and Leadership |
4 weeks |
| Emergency Medicine |
4 weeks |
| General Medicine |
4 weeks |
| Hospital Pharmacy Practice |
6 weeks |
| Infectious Disease |
4 weeks |
| Critical Care |
4 weeks |
| Transitions of Care |
4 weeks |
| Ambulatory Care |
12 weeks (Longitudinal) |
Elective Rotations:
- Critical Care 2
- General Medicine 2
- Independent Practice Experience – Bridgeport Hospital
- Inpatient/Outpatient Infusion and Chemotherapy
- Investigational Drug Services
- Oncology
- Perioperative Pharmacy
- Pediatrics
- Psychiatry
- Solid Organ Transplant – Inpatient and Ambulatory Care
- Sterile Products
- Other**/Repeat/Remediation (With RPD Approval/Discussion)
Additional electives at YNHH may be considered based on availability and RPD approval.
Longitudinal Experiences:
- Residency projects:
- Quality improvement project and medication use evaluation (MUE) focused on providing better, safer and more cost-effective care
- Poster presentation at conference such as ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting
- Platform presentation at conference such as the New England Residency Conference
- Drug Monograph
- Staffing Requirements: Allows the resident to utilize leadership and problem-solving skills to ensure optimal patient care and operations on weekend shifts every third weekend (12 day stretches required) and any shift, including night shift (typically 3 per year), may be scheduled at the discretion of residency director. One major holiday (Christmas, Thanksgiving or New Year's) and one minor holiday (Labor Day, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Day) is also required.
- Formulary Stewardship: Opportunity to manage the formulary and learn critical communication strategies via off-hours medication stewardship and review of medication requests
Teaching Opportunities:
- Education: provide education to patients, health care providers and the pharmacy department
- Precepting: apply the four preceptor roles when interacting with pharmacy students on rotations
- Teaching Certificate Program: opportunity to develop preceptor teaching skills and graduate with a teaching certificate
PGY 1 Requirements for Graduation:
- Educational checklist complete
- Pharmacy Grand Rounds (1)
- Clinical Case Conference (1)
- In-service (at least 2 to 2 different audiences)
- Community Service (2)
- Journal Club (4)
- Monograph, Policy or Guideline (1)
- Medication Use Evaluation (1)
- Manuscript (1) (see below)
- Portfolio complete (completed documents for each checklist item uploaded to resident portfolio)
- Quality Improvement project completed
- Poster presentation at a meeting such as Midyear Meeting and a platform presentation at a meeting such as New England Residency Conference
- Achieved for residency (ACHR) at least 80% of ASHP residency objectives (ACHR is defined as a preceptor or RPC/RPD marking an objective as “achieved” on at least two occasions or the resident has “achieved” the objective at least once with documentation demonstrating achievement of the objective as evaluated by the RPDC/RPD).
- Manuscript suitable for publication (Complete manuscript incorporating at least two rounds of preceptor feedback)
- Compliant with all pharmacist mandatory requirements (e.g. current pharmacist license in good standing on file, completion of all mandatory training)
Disclaimers:
The learning experiences will include a series of learning activities designed to expose the resident to many facets of pharmacy practice with guidance from the preceptor. An individual resident plan and calendar will be developed for each resident.
This residency site agrees that no person at this site will solicit, accept, or use any ranking-related information from any residency applicant.
Joseph Goncalves, PharmD
Emily Huntley, PharmD
Alexa Smeriglio, PharmD
2025 – 2026 Program Graduate
Bhojranie Brahmanand, PharmD - PGY2 Pharmacy Practice Resident, Ambulatory Care - Boston Medical Center
Alexis Hemstock, PharmD - PGY2 Pharmacy Practice Resident, Investigational Drug Services - Yale New Haven Hospital
Tessa Huelsman, PharmD - PGY2 Pharmacy Practice Resident, Psychiatry - Yale New Haven Hospital
2024 – 2025 Program Graduates
Kelly Cheng, PharmD - Oncology Infusion Center Pharmacist - Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Christie Hurteau, PharmD - Emergency Medicine/Critical Care Clinical Pharmacist - Yale New Haven Hospital
Avani Topiwala, PharmD - Hematology Clinical Pharmacist - Yale New Haven Hospital
2023 - 2024 Program Graduates
Meghan Mcnulty, PharmD - Clinical Pharmacist - Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
Kevin Rivera, PharmD - Multispecialty Pharmacist - Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Yujin Hong PharmD, BCPS - Clinical Pharmacist - St.Vincent’s Medical Center
2022 - 2023 Program Graduates
Christian Rohach, PharmD, BCPS, BCEMP - Multispecialty Clinical Pharmacist - Bridgeport Hospital
Matthew Caltagirone, PharmD, BCCCP - Internal Medicine Pharmacist - Naples Comprehensive Health
Lucas Clari, PharmD - Clinical Oncology Specialist - Northside Hospital
2021-2022 Program Graduates
Kendall Szulimowski, PharmD, BCPS - Cardiology Clinical Pharmacist - Bridgeport Hospital
Kalie Berry, PharmD, BCPPS - Multispecialty Clinical Pharmacist (NICU) - UVA
Samuel Breiner, PharmD - Hematology Oncology Pharmacist - Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
2020-2021 Program Graduates
Christie Costello, PharmD, BCPS, BCPP - Psychiatry Clinical Pharmacist - McLean Hospital
Joshua Russell, PharmD, BCGP - Clinical Pharmacist, Pharmacogenomics - Tabula Rasa HealthCare
2019-2020 Program Graduates
Lena Evangelista (DeVietro), PharmD, BCPS - Senior Pharmacy Specialist, Regulatory and Medication Safety - Yale New Haven Health
Emily Mai, PharmD, MPH, BCPS - Transitions of Care Pharmacist - Cedars Sinai
2018-2019 Program Graduates
Nicole Del Toro Pagan, PharmD, BCPS, BCGP - Clinical Pharmacist, Pharmacogenomics - Tabula Rasa HealthCare
Vera Malkhasyan, RPh, BCPS, DPLA - Clinical Pharmacist, Pharmacy Project Management - Yale New Haven Hospital
2017-2018 Program Graduates
Scott Collins, PharmD, BCPS, BCSCP - Pharmacist Supervisor - Atlantic Health System
Alia Mahmood, PharmD, MBA - Associate Director of US Medical Communications - Takeda
