Publications for Pharmacy Residents Are Challenging but Not “Nearly Unattainable”

To the editor:

We would like to thank Eitzen and Jarrett¹ for their recent letter to the editor, “Contributing factors to perceptions of residents’ statistical abilities,” published in the June 2019 edition of Hospital Pharmacy. We appreciate the authors’ commentary on the Newsome and colleagues² article published in April 2018 and we agree with most points. We do not, however, agree with the authors’ opinion that resident publication rates of 50% or greater are “overzealous” or “nearly unattainable.”

Scholarship is important for the advancement of pharmacy practice, and preceptors, in our opinion, must encourage scholarship from pharmacy residents. In 2015, our Residency Advisory Committee made a conscious decision to emphasize and improve research quality and publication within our pharmacy residency programs. What started as a few impromptu lectures has evolved into a formal 10-month, 22.5-hour research certificate program. This program consists of several seminars focused on core research areas, including, but not limited to, research design, literature evaluation, statistical analysis, statistical software application, and manuscript writing. All seminars are led by pharmacists or clinicians with experience and expertise in the subject areas and faculty appointments at our medical school or nearby colleges of pharmacy. In addition, each resident is provided with a scholarship preceptor, who provides support and encouragement throughout the residency year.

Interestingly, we have seen a drastic increase in our resident’s scholarly output since 2015. Our postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) residents are expected to complete 1 medication use evaluation (MUE) and 1 research project during their residency. Our PGY2 residents are expected to complete 1 research project. These expectations have been consistent since 2010. Our 28 pharmacy residents published 2 manuscripts from 2010 to 2014, translating to a publication rate of 7.1%. Both publications were research reports. Conversely, our 28 pharmacy residents published 29 manuscripts from 2015 to 2018, translating to a publication rate of 103.6%. These manuscripts included 22 research reports, 6 case reports, and 1 review article.

We, therefore, do believe targeting a resident publication rate of 50% or higher is a challenging and admirable goal. Although we recognize many pharmacy residencies may have publication rates less than 50%, our experience indicates resident education and encouragement can increase publication rates.^2,3 We will continue to target a resident publication rate of 50% or greater, and we would like to emphasize that it is the role of a preceptor to encourage pharmacy residents to attempt to achieve “nearly unattainable” goals. Pharmacy residents, in our experience, frequently surprise their preceptors and themselves.