Medication-Use Safety and Policy

The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Medication-Use Safety and Policy Residency is a 12-month ASHP-accredited PGY2 residency program that provides advanced training in medication safety and medication-use policy. The complex and high-risk nature of treatment provided at St. Jude provides a unique learning environment for patient safety and medication policy that can be applied later to any health care setting.

The resident will investigate medication errors and lead improvement efforts to prevent future events.. Emphasis will be placed on leading and coordinating Cause Analyses (such as root cause analysis), managing a medication use safety team/committee,  participating in methods to improve event detection and event reporting, and contributing to other quality improvement initiatives. The resident will also participate in both administrative and patient care aspects of the St. Jude medication-use process, such as guideline and policy development and formulary management. Other activities include coordination of a pharmacy and therapeutics committee, regulatory readiness, and completion of medication-use evaluations and audits.

Along with medication-safety and policy experiences, the resident will acquire experience in teaching through lectures and precepting pharmacy students. The resident will be expected to complete a major project focused on medication safety or policy or lead a quality improvement initiative. Experiences during the residency will enable the resident to seek a career focused on medication safety or medication-use policy.