Q + A Page
Submit your residency questions to obsidian_17@hotmail.com and they will be answered expeditiously and confidentially.
July 19th:
We have received our first question and what a question it is! It is: “What’s the difference between residencies and internships?”
An internship is mandatory, while a residency is not mandatory. If you do a residency, your residency hours can be counted towards your internship hours.
An internship is like a continuation of SPEP, with a list of tasks you must complete to the College’s satisfaction. Those of you who have been studying hard for Jurisprudence know that Interns are allowed signing authority as per an agreement between them and their preceptors. However all interns MUST be overseen by a pharmacist preceptor! An internship also lasts for a few months, while a residency lasts for a year.
Residencies, on the other hand, take place at a hospital or drug manufacturing company and last a year. You receive additional training in a range of clinical specialties, spending a specific amount of weeks working on each specialty. The time you spend working on a specialty, and the specialties you work on, change depending on the place you work at. During a residency you may find yourself identifying DRPs, working on clinical floors, improving your verbal and written skills, doing informal and formal educational presentations, teaching skills workshops or even TA’ing in an SPEP program.
August 3rd:
More questions have been received! Stand back as I answer them one by one.
“On average, how many hospitals does one apply to?”
From what I have been able to determine, there is no average. You can apply to as many or as few programs, inside and outside of Ontario, as you want! There’s also no application fee(s), so don’t worry about being charged extra for applying to several hospitals. However, keep in mind that interviews happen during or close to the exam period and if you are an awesome applicant, you might experience a bad case of schedule crunch if you are invited to too many interviews.
“What are the relative odds to getting accepted?”
I contacted the helpful folks at the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists and they told me that 193 people applied to 80 positions across Canada last year. So…that would be 41.5%! (To put that in perspective, remember that there were at least 2000 people applying to the B.Sc.Phm program in 2006, which means we had a 12% chance of getting in, and we all still made it!)
“Do the provinces differ in what they offer for residency or is the
curriculum pretty standardized throughout the country?”
Because residency programs are accredited through the CHPRB (Canadian Hospital Pharmacy Residency Board), there is a high degree of standardization. Most residency programs have the same core rotations (though if you do a residency at Sick Kids or CAMH, you might reasonably expect some more emphasis on pediatrics or psych). The stipend (i.e. the amount you are paid) may vary, and the amount of time you spend on each rotation may vary. For specific information about programs across the country, you can look at this helpful link: http://www.cshp.ca/programs/residencytraining/accreditedPrograms/index_e.asp
“How might getting a pharmD be more/less advantageous vs. residency?”
Getting into the Pharm.D. program is definitely harder, in terms of grades and in terms of the number of spaces (there are only 8 Pharm.D. students each year!). It may be helpful to think of the residency as step 1 and a Pharm.D. as step 2. Completing a residency may give you an advantage in getting into the Pharm. D. program….but, of course, you don’t NEED a residency to get into the Pharm.D. program. Some high-level management jobs will require one or the other or both.
Keep in mind that the Faculty is moving to an entry-level Pharm. D. (or so we are told) so if we’re talking about the current Pharm.D. program, that involves a year of extra clinical knowledge (think of it as Year 5 of the Pharmacy Program) followed by a year of some more structured practical training (SPEP Part 2). For more questions about the Pharm.D. program, which really isn’t my area of expertise (as of yet), you can contact the always-approachable and level-headed Dr. Tom Brown at tom.brown@utoronto.ca
Sept. 14th:
For those of you who missed last week’s Residency Q + A session, here is Jen Teng’s Incredible Residency Presentation. Enjoy!
Jen Teng’s Incredible OPRA Presentation
We’ve also received Gabe Sin’s presentations from Residency Night. Gabe says: “Due to a variety of reasons, including lack of copyright for Bon Jovi, I can’t show you guys the original awesome presentation that debuted last week… but that’s what happens when you miss a talk by Gabe. This one is just as good though.” I’m not going to even attempt to add to that, so here they are!
Gabe’s Awesome Pre-Game Presentation
Gabe’s Amazing Industrial Residency Presentation
Sept. 24th:
Many more questions in the aftermath of Residency Night!
Who can I contact at each hospital if I want to send my application via e-mail?
I’ll prepare and update a list that will develop as time goes by. Keep watching!
The Ottawa Hospital- Celine Corman, Residency Co-Ordinator. ccorman@ottawahospital.on.ca
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton- Cathy Burger, Residency Co-ordinator. cburger@stjosham.on.ca
UHN (Primary Care Residency)- Karen Cameron, Primary Residency Care Co-ordinator. Karen.Cameron@uhn.on.ca
William Osler Health Centre: Send applications to both Rakhi Goel, Residency Co-ordinator (Rakhi_Goel@oslerhc.org) and Hina Marsonia, Residency Co-ordinator (hina_marsonia@oslerhc.org)
St. Michael’s Hospital: Dr. Thomas Chin, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist/Leader. ChinT@smh.toronto.on.ca
Sick Kids: Ms.Linda Cavan, Administrative Assistant. linda.cavan@sickkids.ca
Kingston General Hospital: Bonnie Ralph, Residency Co-ordinator. ralphb@kgh.kari.net
Hamilton Health Sciences Centre: Mary Thornewell, Residency Co-Ordinator. thornewe@HHSC.CA
Trillium Health Centre: Anjana Sengar, Residency Co-Ordinator. asengar@thc.on.ca
Mount Sinai Hospital: Send applications to both Bill Wilson, Director of Pharmacy (biwilson@mtsinai.on.ca) and Toni Bailie, Residency Co-Ordinator (tbailie@mtsinai.on.ca)
London Health Sciences Centre: Richard Jones, Director of Pharmacy Services, c/o Patricia Rogers, Administrative Assistant. Patricia.Rogers@LHSC.ON.CA
Sunnybrook: Dr. Thomas Paton, Director of Pharmacy. thomas.paton@sunnybrook.ca
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health: Wayne Marigold, Director of Pharmaceutical Services. wayne_marigold@camh.net
When will my references be contacted?
References will be contacted after each interview. Interviews will be held in eary December, so stay tuned for dates.
What is the deadline for submitting my ranking of desired hospital residency programs to the RMS (Residency Matching Service)?
The deadline is Jan. 4, 2010. The link to RMS is here. You can create a profile anytime before then, so why not do it now and save yourself the trouble?
When can I expect to hear if I have been accepted to a Residency Program?
You will be contacted by e-mail by Jan. 11, 2010. You’ll have to call the hospital and accept their offer verbally by Jan. 15th, and you’ll receive a written offer by February 12 at the latest.
If you have completed undergraduate courses before entering pharmacy, do you need to include these grades on your transcript along with the Pharmacy grades, or do they only want the Pharmacy grades?
If you have completed an undergraduate degree you do not need to send in those transcripts. If you went to U of T,
they will automatically be printed at with your Pharmacy Transcripts on 1-2 pages. It would be best then just to scan everything and cut and paste that into the application.
If you went to another university, they do not require that you send in those transcripts. You only need to get the ones from U of T.
If you’re sending in an online application, do you need to scan your transcript, or will a simple copy-and-paste be sufficient?
You need to scan your transcript. First you have to pay to have one printed, you can do this on Rosi. Then you have to scan it. If you just cut and paste it, you could change your marks in certain courses. So you have to scan the actual paper document and then paste the picture of the scan into your application.
On the top of the application where it says Hospital name, Date visited and Pharmacist you spoke with – does that refer to residency night at the hospital or the interview?
This refers to residency night, open houses. It is not the interview because you will have to apply before you even get an interview. You should ideally go to the open house and have talked to someone that works at the
hospital that you want to apply to. If you weren’t able to make it to the open house, the hospitals want to know whether you made an effort to discuss residency with someone that works at that hospital. Say you emailed them,
talked to them at the residency night, made other arrangements to discuss. They want to see that you actually put effort in.
What’s up with the portion of the application that says, “Pharmacy Licensure or Certificate of Registration”? Do we fill that out?
Bill Wilson says to leave this alone unless you already have your B.Sc.Phm., and we all know to always trust Bill Wilson!
If we are submitting a resume with our application(s), is there a page limit to the resume!
Shorter resumes are always easier to read, but no, there is no set page limit on the resume.
What types of questions will be asked in Industrial Residency Interviews?
Check out this presentation here -> Industrial Residency Interviews Tips[1]
Last 20 Updates (across all categories)
- IFCG Disability Insurance Presentation and Dinner - posted by steph, Mar 24 2010
- SPEP Week 1 Reminders - posted by Jackie, Jan 05 2010
- Now available: Summer Job Guide! - posted by steph, Dec 11 2009
- Order your yearbook online - posted by Nadine, Nov 19 2009
- *important!* PEBC presentation, Q&A period (with Zubin Austin), PEBC pre-test - posted by steph, Nov 14 2009
- Canadian Armed Forces Presentation - posted by steph, Nov 09 2009
- A Special CAPSI event: Protecting Your Financial Future Against The Randomness of Health - posted by steph, Nov 08 2009
- Job Fair on November 6 - posted by saeed, Nov 03 2009
- Safeway recruiting for Washington - posted by saeed, Nov 03 2009
- Week 10 Updates - posted by Jackie, Oct 31 2009
- ‘Accreditation after graduation’ presentation - posted by saeed, Oct 27 2009
- Rexall Dinner Presentation - posted by saeed, Oct 27 2009
- Mock OSCE Information - posted by anne, Oct 25 2009
- Week 9 Updates - posted by Jackie, Oct 25 2009
- The HBC Experience - posted by saeed, Oct 22 2009
- Metro Dinner - posted by saeed, Oct 20 2009
- CAPSI Competitions - posted by anne, Oct 19 2009
- Shoppers Drug Mart Lunch Presentation - posted by steph, Oct 19 2009
- Wal-Mart Lunch Seminar - posted by saeed, Oct 16 2009
- SHOPPERS DRUG MART – University of Toronto Pharmacy Class of 2010 – Graduating Dinner & Presentation - posted by steph, Oct 15 2009