2026-2027 Rotation Descriptions
Rotation Requirements
- Orientation
- Acute Care rotations (2)
- Acute Care I: Internal Medicine
- Acute Care II
- Antimicrobial Stewardship
- Capstone rotation
- Central Operations
- Critical Care rotation
- Drug Information
- Elective rotations (2)
- Transitions of Care rotation
Residents receive training on the electronic health record, policies and guidelines, department structure, pharmacy strategic initiatives, and requirements of the residency program.
The Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP) oversees appropriate use of restricted anti-infective agents, performs daily and longitudinal monitoring and surveillance activities, and facilitates education and development of staff and residents
The capstone rotation is the final rotation of the residency year. In the second half of the year, residents will select from one of the existing acute care, critical care, transitions of care, or elective rotations in a clinical area that helps with the transition from their PGY1 year to their next career steps.
Residents will work in the central pharmacy and support order and product verification, technician oversight, and compounding oversight of medications provided to patients within the hospital.
Residents will be involved with many aspects of the University of Utah Drug Information Service (UUDIS) including responding to drug information requests in our consult service call center and writing a formulary monograph.
Residents will round with one of the internal medicine teams and encounter disease states including decompensated cirrhosis, diabetic ketoacidosis, community acquired pneumonia, skin and soft tissue infections, osteomyelitis, alcohol use disorder, DVT/PE, and many more!
Longitudinal Rotation Requirements
Residents will receive an introduction and overview to the department’s compliance, supply chain, revenue integrity and financial issues.
Residents are responsible for completing a statistics-based presentation, two recitation sections for College of Pharmacy (COP) students and two other COP activities, an ACPE-accredited continuing education presentation, a poster presentation at Vizient or ASHP Midyear Meeting, and a platform presentation of longitudinal project findings at the Mountain States Conference.
Residents will select a quality improvement project, submit an IRB, write a project proposal, complete data collection and analysis, and write a publishable manuscript prior to the completion of the residency year.
Residents staff in one of the decentralized clinical areas at the University of Utah Health Main Hospital. Residents are responsible for critically evaluating patients' drug therapy regimens for efficacy and safety, making therapy recommendations to an interdisciplinary team, performing transitions of care activities, and documenting pass-off notes in the pharmacist handoff.
Acute Care II Rotations
Residents will round with either the General Cardiology or Heart Failure and Transplant team and encounter patients with acute coronary syndromes, heart failure exacerbations, endocarditis, myocarditis, atrial fibrillation and many other cardiac primary problems.
Residents will join the medical oncology or malignant hematology teams during rounds, engaging with patients undergoing active cancer treatment. They will also encounter patients admitted due to treatment complications such as immune-related adverse events, coagulopathies, pain management issues, and infectious complications.
All patients being followed by this service have some sort of primary/underlying neurologic condition, such as stroke, MS, epilepsy, meningitis, and myasthenia gravis, in addition to their other disease states.
Residents will round with the pulmonary team and encounter disease states such and complicated pleural effusions, empyema, lung abscesses, lung transplant complications, tuberculosis, asthma/COPD exacerbations, and many more!
The patient population includes patients followed by the general surgery, orthopedic surgery, transplant surgery, trauma surgery, vascular surgery, and urology teams.
Critical Care Rotations
The majority of patients cared for by the Burn Service have sustained a thermal injury whether from flame, scald, electrical, or chemical source. In addition, the Burn Center cares for other types of wound-related problems including Stevens-Johnson syndrome, toxic epidermal necrolysis, frostbite, necrotizing soft tissue infections, gangrene, and other skin disorders which require surgical management.
The emphasis for this rotation will be on the cardiothoracic surgical patients with a significant number receiving mechanical circulatory support via ECMO and VADs alongside their other shock states, ventilator management and other co-morbidities.
The Huntsman Intensive Care Unit (HICU) serves adult medical and surgical oncology/hematology patients as well as stem cell transplant recipients.
Patient demographics vary considerably and commonly encountered disease states include respiratory failure, states of impaired perfusion (septic, hemorrhagic, hypovolemic, and cardiogenic shock), acute and chronic kidney injury, toxic ingestions, gastrointestinal bleeds, acute and chronic liver failure, solid-organ transplant, and thromboembolic diseases.
The majority of the patients in the NCCU have sustained ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, meningitis, closed head injury, spinal cord injury, seizure prophylaxis, status epilepticus, brain tumors, myasthenia gravis, epilepsy, Guillain-Barre syndrome, anticoagulation management, and other medical and neurological disorders.
The Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) serves OB/GYN, trauma, vascular, transplant, and general surgery patients.
Transitions of Care Rotations
During this rotation a resident will perform the usual institutional activities such medication history reconciliations and clarifying distributional questions. Emergency Department specific activities may include performing prospective reviews of medications administered in the ED, identify potential drug‐related problems and communicate these to other health care providers, participate in trauma/cardiac/brain attack codes, participate in topic/article discussions, present patients to a preceptor, be a resource to the ED staff in the areas of pharmacotherapy, pharmacokinetics, drug interactions, adverse effects, and side effects of commonly administered medications.
Residents will assist with onboarding patients to Specialty Pharmacy Services by providing education, reviewing prior authorizations, and issuing refills for specialty medications. Specialty diseases will likely include, but are not limited to rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, plaque psoriasis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, and eosinophilic esophagitis.
Population served: stroke, traumatic brain injury, polytrauma, spinal cord injury, critical illness myopathy, transplant patient recovery
Teams provides pharmacy services for a total of 4 medical teams (Red- stroke, Blue- TBI/polytrauma, Green-SCI and Purple- CIM/transplant)
The resident will rotate between the inpatient pulmonary service, focusing specifically on patients admitted for Cystic Fibrosis exacerbations as well as the ambulatory Cystic Fibrosis Clinic and Asthma Clinic.
The resident will be responsible for direct patient care of post-transplant patients in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. The resident will also have the opportunity to participate in transplant evaluation meetings.
The resident will learn to function as a clinical pharmacist on the Hospital Thrombosis Team, located on CVMU of the University Hospital. The resident will also rotate through the on-site Thrombosis Clinic at the University Hospital, where they provide point-of-care INR testing, anticoagulation drug therapy selection and education (including the direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs)), and management for outpatients within the UUHC system via collaborative practice agreement with the referring provider
Electives
Additional elective opportunities are available upon request.
The resident will spend 3 days per week in the gastroenterology clinic which serves patients with various disease states including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), eosinophilic esophagitis, gastroesophageal reflux, IBS, motility dysfunction, and other general GI issues. The resident will spend 2 days per week in the rheumatology clinic which serves patients with rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, lupus (SLE), glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis, and gout
The Huntsman Cancer Institute features pharmacists in over 10 hematology and oncology clinics, covering conditions from breast cancer to multiple myeloma. Residents will interact with patients at various stages of their oncology treatment, providing valuable experience in developing chemotherapy and supportive care plans, as well as medication counseling.
The HIV Clinic is the largest provider of HIV/AIDS care in the state and provides care to patients in the surrounding intermountain region. Clinical pharmacy services include drug information, patient education and consultation in HIV.
Residents will be trained in the safe and effective use of information technology and automated systems including assessment, planning and appropriate use of various technologies. This rotation will include time for projects, informatics meetings, and technology training.
Huntsman Mental Health Institute (HMHI) is an inpatient and outpatient facility serving both adult and adolescent patients suffering from psychiatric disorders including but not limited to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, PTSD, depression, anxiety, substance use disorder, and eating disorders.
The Investigation Drug Service (IDS) pharmacy is responsible for the acquisition, accountability, storage, labeling, and distribution of study drugs. The resident is expected to be engaged in learning IDS processes and understanding the role IDS plays in the care of patients enrolled in clinical trials.
The Neonatology rotation is a 48 bed level IIIb newborn ICU caring for very low birth weight and extremely low birth weight infants drawn from a diverse urban/rural population of ~2 million covering 5 states.
The Redwood Health Center Pharmacy is a high volume (approximately 600 prescriptions per day) pharmacy that primarily serves a diverse patient population and employees of the University of Utah Health System.
The Greenwood Health Center offers a full range of medical services including primary care, urgent care, dental, and physical therapy.
The South Jordan Health Center offers a full range of medical services including primary care, specialty care, infusion, emergency services, and outpatient surgery