Program Structure

Required Rotations 

Ambulatory Care I

 

The Ambulatory Care I Family Medicine Clinic Rotation is a 6-week structured experience designed to provide the resident with experiences involving both chronic and acute disease states, preparing them to provide direct patient care in an ambulatory care environment. Residents will apply knowledge of pathophysiology, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and professional communication skills to assist in therapeutic decision making and provide valuable medication related information and education to healthcare providers, patients, and patients' families. This experience will take place at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport-Monroe Family Medicine Clinic. The Family Medicine Clinic is primarily a clinic in which the Family Medicine Residents see patients; Family Medicine Faculty members also see patients in the clinic on various days of the week. The majority of your time will be spent with the residents. The residency program is 3 years, and there are typically eight residents in each class. The first year residents have clinic 1 half day per week; the second year residents have clinic 2 half days per week; the third year residents have clinic 3 half days per week.

 

Ambulatory Care II

 

This rotation is also an ambulatory care rotation at Ochsner LSU Health Monroe and takes place at the Family Medicine Clinic. The resident will serve as the primary preceptor for two P4 students and help to integrate them into the clinic.  They will  work closely with the family medicine residents to optimize medication plans, provide drug information, and help improve the quality of care the patients with common chronic diseases.

 

Oncology

 

The resident will work with the oncology team at Ochsner LSU Health Monroe to improve patient outcomes by developing treatment plans, providing supportive care management, medication recommendations, and chemotherapy education.  The resident will become familiar with different treatment regimens for hematology and oncology disease states and preparation of chemotherapy through literature review, topic discussions and direct patient care.

 

 

Internal Medicine

 

The resident will integrate into a multidisciplinary rounding team at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport consisting of an attending physician, medical residents, and pharmacy/medical students. Mornings will be dedicated to table/bedside rounds and interdisciplinary teaching, while afternoons will be utilized for follow up on patient related issues, new admissions, and transitions of care. Opportunities for precepting pharmacy students will be available.

 

Elective Rotations

Academia

 

This rotation will provide the resident with a plethora of experience in the behind the scenes work of a college of pharmacy administration team. Paired with the school director and associate school director the resident will learn the functions of a pharmacy school inside and out. This is a great elective for a resident that is interested in a future in academia and potentially an administrative role in a college of pharmacy.

 

Ambulatory Care (Heart Failure)

 

The practice sites for this rotation experience at Ochsner LSU Health – Shreveport are the Cardiology Clinic, Electrophysiology Clinic, and Heart Failure Clinic. The Heart Failure Clinic practitioners include nurse practitioners and physician assistants. The Cardiology Clinic and Electrophysiology Clinic practitioners include cardiology fellows and cardiology attendings. The clinical pharmacist is responsible for ensuring the patient has an accurate home medication list in the electronic health care record. Additional responsibilities include review of all medications for safety and accuracy, medication counseling, assisting with patient procurement of medications, and being a liaison between the clinic and outpatient pharmacies.

 

Oncology II

 

This rotation is an ambulatory care oncology rotation at the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center at Ochsner-LSU Health Shreveport. Clinics include GI and Lung/Head and Neck. The resident works as an integral part of the medical team along with attendings and fellows to provide optimal care for our patients both through direct patient and physician interaction.

 

Internal Medicine II

 

The resident will be part of an interdisciplinary patient care team at Ochsner LSU Health Monroe with an inpatient Family Medicine service. Opportunities to precept P4 students may be available.

 

 

Required Rotations

 

Ambulatory Care (Community Health)

 

Primary Care at University Medical Center New Orleans

 

This rotation will allow residents to provide direct patient care in the adult primary care setting. The resident will meet with patients for one-on-one comprehensive medication reviews focusing on common primary care issues including diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and smoking cessation. Residents will also work with attending physicians, medical residents, and nursing staff to provide medication recommendations, counseling, and to resolve barriers to medication access. Residents will strengthen their patient communication skills with a focus on motivational interviewing, communicating through an interpreter, and working with patients at a variety of health literacy levels.

 

Community Health at CrescentCare – A Community Health Center

 

Ambulatory care is a required 6-week learning experience at CrescentCare. CrescentCare is its own health facility without ties to a hospital system and has two establishments in New Orleans hosting a variety of services. The providers, nursing, and staff work synergistically between both buildings to provide services to the community. Providers see up to 10 patients per patient panel.

Currently, there is only one clinical pharmacist, who is employed by the University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy (ULM COP), providing clinical services to CrescentCare.  Medical services include primary medical care, women's health services, gender care, pediatrics, behavioral health syringe access and harm reduction, prevention, sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and treatment, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PreP)services, case management, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) primary care.

 

Infectious Diseases

 

Infectious Diseases (ID) is a required, six week learning experience at University Medical Center New Orleans (UMCNO). UMCNO is a 446-bed non-profit, academic hospital. There are two ID teaching teams, Tulane and LSU. Each of the teaching teams includes an attending physician, either a first- or second-year infectious diseases fellow, medical residents, and an infectious diseases clinical pharmacy specialist. Pharmacy residents and other health professionals in training also participate when assigned to ID teaching teams. Typically, the ID team will be responsible for the care of up to 25 patients.

 

Emergency Medicine I

 

The Emergency Medicine (EM) rotation is required a six-week acute care rotation for pharmacy residents. This rotation will consist of providing clinical pharmacy services to patients in the emergency department (ED) under the preceptorship of a clinical pharmacy specialist. The rotation allows residents to provide pharmaceutical care to patients presenting with acute and chronic illnesses as well as actively participate in the resuscitation of medical and trauma patients. Residents rotating in the UMCNO ED will be expected to actively participate as a part of the multidisciplinary team in order to provide optimal patient care. To accomplish this, residents will need to use their pharmacotherapy knowledge acquired through their didactic training and exhibit excellent communication skills.  The resident must complete EM I before progressing to EM II (an elective experience).

 

Internal Medicine I

 

Internal Medicine (IM) is a required 6-week rotation at UMCNO. The resident must complete IM I before taking IM II. There are 7 LSU and 11 Tulane IM teaching teams. This rotation will be with a LSU Internal Medicine Service. This team includes and attending physician, 1 upper level (PGY-2 or PGY-3) medical resident, 2 first year (PGY-1) medical residents, a clinical pharmacy specialist, medical students, physician assistant students, nurse practitioner students, and pharmacy students. This team is on-call every 4 days during the month and typically this team is responsible for the care of approximately 14 patients.

Topic discussions, journal clubs, and other readings will be used to help develop the resident's patient care skills for common disease states or acquiring knowledge about diseases seen on the service in addition to direct patient care experiences.

 

Elective Rotations

Cardiology-Outpatient

 

The Cardiology elective is a six-week learning experience at Ochsner LSU Health – Shreveport. The practice sites for this rotation are the Cardiology Clinic, Electrophysiology Clinic, and Heart Failure Clinic. The Heart Failure Clinic practitioners include nurse practitioners and physician assistants. The Cardiology Clinic and Electrophysiology Clinic practitioners include cardiology fellows and cardiology attendings. Pharmacy residents and pharmacy students also participate in clinic.

 

Ambulatory Care-Primary Care

 

The Adult Primary Care Rotation is an elective 4-week learning experience at the University Medical Center New Orleans LSU Internal Medicine Clinic. This is a resident-run clinic within an academic medical center which sees a full variety of disease states typically encountered in adult primary care. The clinic typically sees 40-60 patients per day, and the pharmacist sees about 4 patients per day for dedicated pharmacist visits. This rotation is designed to develop the resident's knowledge and skills in the provision of clinical ambulatory care pharmacy services in primary care.

 

Emergency Medicine II

 

The Emergency Medicine rotation is a six-week acute care rotation for pharmacy residents. This is intended for residents who have already completed the Emergency Medicine I learning experience This rotation will consist of providing clinical pharmacy services to patients in the emergency department (ED) under the preceptorship of a clinical pharmacy specialist. This rotation is further focused on the preceptorship of Doctor of Pharmacy Students since Emergency Medicine principles have already been introduced. The rotation allows residents to provide pharmaceutical care to patients presenting with acute and chronic illnesses as well as actively participate in the resuscitation of medical and trauma patients. Residents rotating in the UMCNO ED will be expected to actively participate as a part of the multidisciplinary team in order to provide optimal patient care.  To accomplish this, residents will need to use the knowledge of pharmacotherapy that they have acquired through their didactic training and also exhibit excellent communication skills. 

 

Global Health

 

The Global Health rotation is an elective 6-month longitudinal experience that gives the resident the opportunity to participate in various global health-related initiatives within the ULM College of Pharmacy. Experiences include mentored teaching in the Global Health & Pharmacy Practice elective course for Doctor of Pharmacy students, submitting an article on a current clinical topic for publication in the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Global Health Practice & Research Network (ACCP Global Health PRN) newsletter, and participating in planning and/or implementation of the ULM Cross-College Service Learning Project in the Dominican Republic over spring break.

 

Internal Medicine II

 

The Internal Medicine II experience is a 6 week, elective rotation that will provide the resident with a more independent medicine experience. This rotation builds on skills gained in the other rotations. The resident must complete IM I before taking IM II. The expectations are much greater and independence is afforded the resident to learn and grow as a practitioner. The resident functions as an integral member of the multidisciplinary care team and uses evidence-based medicine to optimize medication therapy for a diverse group of high acuity patients. Additionally, the resident will take on the additional responsibility of precepting students. The internal medicine II rotation provides you with opportunities for advanced training with a variety of acutely ill medical populations.

 

Medical Intensive Care 

 

Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) is an elective six week learning experience at University Medical Center New Orleans. There are 24 MICU beds in the hospital. There are two separate MICU teaching teams with the LSU and Tulane Schools of Medicine. Each team contains an attending physician, a pulmonary/ critical care fellow, 2 PGY2-4 residents, at least 2 PGY1 interns and a clinical pharmacy specialist. Pharmacy residents and other professionals in training may also participate in the MICU teaching teams.