PGY2 Psychiatric Pharmacy

Purpose

ASHP Statement

PGY2 residency programs build upon Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) education and PGY1 pharmacy residency training to develop pharmacist practitioners with knowledge, skills, and abilities as defined in the educational competency areas, goals, and objectives for advanced practice areas. Residents who successfully complete PGY2 residency programs are prepared for advanced patient care or other specialized positions, and board certification in the advanced practice area, if available.

RUHS Description

The purpose of the Riverside University Medical Center’s PGY2 psychiatric pharmacy residency program is to build upon Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) education and PGY1 pharmacy residency training to develop pharmacist practitioners with knowledge, skills, and abilities as defined in the educational competency areas, goals, and objectives for advanced practice areas. Residents who successfully complete the RUHS PGY2 Psychiatric Pharmacy residency program are prepared for advanced patient care or other specialized positions, and board certification in psychiatric pharmacy. 

Practice Site

The PGY-2 Psychiatric Pharmacy Residency is offered by Riverside University Health System (RUHS) Medical Center Department of Pharmacy in cooperation with RUHS Department of Behavioral Health and University of California Riverside (UCR) School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry.

The residency learning experiences are held at multiple locations throughout the Inland Empire. Most residency learning experiences will take place at RUHS Arlington Campus, located in Riverside. The Arlington Campus includes a 77-bed Inpatient Mental Health Hospital, and 2 Psychiatric Emergency rooms. Units include a 9-bed psychiatric ICU, two 28 bed adult units, a 12-bed adolescent unit, as well as adult and a pediatric/adolescent emergency departments. Additionally, the Arlington Campus pharmacy provides hospital discharge medications.

In addition to time at the Arlington Campus, residents will spend time at the RUHS Medical Center, located in Moreno Valley, for their geriatrics and psychiatric consult liaison services (PCLS) rotations. Academia learning experiences include lectures delivered to pharmacy students attending Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, CA and Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, CA. Finally, the resident-run psychiatric clinics is telehealth based and serves patients based out of RUHS’s Community Health Centers and Hospital Based Clinics.

RUHS Psychiatric Pharmacists are responsible for providing both operational and clinical services at all sites. Psychiatric Pharmacists work under P&T approved protocols in the inpatient setting allowing for monitoring and ordering of appropriate lab work for clozapine, anticoagulation, and metabolic monitoring. Psychiatric Pharmacists conduct daily screening and documentation for Joint Commission Core Measure HBIPS, medication histories, patient medication education group, and treatment team participation.

RUHS Medical Center serves as a main training site for both RUHS and UCR Psychiatry residency and fellowship programs, including specialties in child & adolescent psychiatry and forensic psychiatry. As such, there will be extensive collaboration with these trainees. Psychiatric pharmacy staff train student pharmacists from a variety of universities, including University of the Pacific, University of Southern California, Keck Graduate Institute, Loma Linda University, Western University, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine. With the large number of trainees rotating through the facility year-round, the resident will gain ample exposure to preceptorship and hone these skills.

Andy Williams, PharmD BCPP FAAPP – Residency Program Director

Esther Moon, PharmD – Residency Program Coordinator

Ana Barron, PharmD BCPP

Niyati Butala, PharmD BCPP

Hayley Cliatt, PharmD

Phillip Huynh, PharmD

Dalea Kandela, PharmD

Erika Kim, PharmD BCPP

Jessa Koch, PharmD BCPP

Melissa Mitchell, PharmD BCPP BCPS BCGP 

Susie Park, PharmD BCPP FCSHP

Sabrina Snyder, PharmD BCPP

*Additional pharmacy and medicine faculty provide selective learning experiences

• RUHS – Arlington Campus (Riverside)
  • Orientation
  • Adolescent Psychiatry
  • Adult Psychiatric Inpatient
  • Advanced Inpatient Psychiatry
  • Emergency Psychiatry
• RUHS – Main Campus (Moreno Valley)
  • Consult Liaison Psychiatry
  • Geriatrics

•  Academia/Education
• Community/consumer education (including NAMI local association meetings and/or RUHS Family/Peer advocate meetings)
• Grand Rounds/in-services (including Psychopharmacology Pearl Series, RUHS Psychiatry Residency Didactics, etc)
• Pharmacy school classroom didactics (Loma Linda School of Pharmacy and Keck Graduate Institute School of Pharmacy CNS Modules)
• Ambulatory Psychiatric Clinic
  • Following CA RPH Licensure, resident is granted mid-level practitioner privileges and assumes a patient case load within RUHS CHC and Hospital Based Clinics.
• Health Inequities and Structural Competency
• Psychiatric Pharmacy Operations
  • Staffing at Arlington campus (minimum Friday afternoons while rotating at Arlington)
  • Co-chairing Arlington Campus Medication Management Committee
• Research                                      

• Academia
• Administration
• Advanced Geriatrics
• Correctional Health Services
• Developmental Disabilities
• Neurology
• Extension of any required experience
• Teaching Certificate available if interested

The RUHS PGY-2 Psychiatric Pharmacy resident is encouraged to select research topics that align with their interests and professional goals. Psychiatric Pharmacy faculty will collaborate with the resident in their research, facilitating and assisting with project design, implementation, analysis, and manuscript preparation. The resident is encouraged to present research as a poster at the midyear meeting for American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and/or the annual meeting of the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists (AAPP). The resident is required to present a platform presentation at annual RUHS Research Symposium if research is not presented at other national conference. The goal of the research experience is to develop a research protocol or new service that is suitable for publication.

RUHS PGY-2 Psychiatric Pharmacy resident research has been published in the following journals:

• American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
• Current Psychiatry
• Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology
• Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology
• Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Journal of Psychiatric Practice
• Mental Health Clinician
• Pharmacy

Applicant for the PGY-2 Psychiatric Pharmacy Residency Program must:

• Applicants must be graduates from an ACPE accredited degree program (or one in the process of pursuing accreditation) or have a Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Examination Committee (FPGEC) certificate from the NABP. [ASHP STRD 1.2a]

• Applicants are licensed or will be eligible for pharmacist licensure in the state of California as required by the program (or equivalent registration in the country if outside of the US) by the start of the residency program. [ASHP STRD 1.2a]

• Applicants are completing or have completed an ASHP-accredited or candidate-status PGY1 residency. [ASHP STRD 1.2b]

• Be a citizen of the U.S.A. or hold a visa allowing for completion of the residency year (RUHS cannot sponsor visas)

• Submit application materials through PhorCAS (except for early commitments)

• Adhere to the rules of the ASHP Pharmacy Resident Matching Program (RMP) [ASHP STRD 1.3]

• Be a highly motivated individual who desires advanced training and enhanced level of professional competence in psychiatric pharmacy practice

Application materials must include: 

• Official transcript from the School of Pharmacy

• Three letters of recommendation 

• Letter of intent

• Curriculum Vitae 

Applications must be received by the designated PhorCAS deadline to be considered for the residency program. Residents for the PGY2 program are selected through the matching program. 

After applications have been reviewed through a set of predetermined criteria by the RPD and the PGY-2 Psychiatric Pharmacy RAC Subcommittee, qualified applicants will be invited for an on-site interview at their own expense or arrange for a phone/web-based interview if circumstances do not allow for an on-site interview.  

Criteria for Selection to the RUHS PGY2 Psychiatric Pharmacy Residency include:

• Communication skills, maturity and self confidence
• Leadership, awareness and time management
• Motivation, professional interest and integrity
• Knowledge base
• Critical thinking and clinical reasoning
• Scholastic achievements
• Work experiences

These criteria will be evaluated through applicants’ CVs, interviews, references, school transcripts and recommendation letters.  These will be placed into a rubric. Candidates will be required to have a minimum score, determined by the PGY-2 Psychiatric Pharmacy RAC Subcommittee, to recommend invitation for an interview, although final decision for interview invitations will be at the discretion of the RPD. The Residency Advisory Committee will reconvene upon completion of the interview process to discuss and review feedback from interview scores and rank prospective candidates based on these predetermined criteria.  Final ranking will be approved by the RPD. It will be submitted to the ASHP Resident Matching Program after review and approval by the RAC. 

Phase II match and Scramble shall follow the same selection process.

• Niyati Butala, PharmD BCPP (c/o 2019) – Emergency Psychiatric Pharmacist at RUHS
• Sabrina Snyder, PharmD BCPP (c/o 2020) – Adult Inpatient Psychiatric Pharmacist at RUHS
• Ana Barron, PharmD BCPP (c/o 2021) – Psychiatric Consult Liaison Psychiatric Pharmacist at RUHS
• Erika Kim, PharmD BCPP (c/o 2021) – Geriatric Psychiatric Pharmacist at RUHS
• Connie Kang, PharmD BCPP (c/o 2022) – Ambulatory Care Psychiatric Pharmacist at LA County Department of Mental Health
• Haley Andrews, PharmD BCPP (c/o 2022) – Inpatient Psychiatric Pharmacist at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles
• Stefanie Schwab, PharmDBCPP (c/o 2023) – Research Fellow with University of Colorado and Psychiatric Pharmacist at Children’s Hospital Colorado
• Esther Moon, PharmDBCPP (c/o 2023) – Developmental Disabilities/Adult Inpatient Psychiatric Pharmacist at RUHS
• Hayley Cliatt, PharmD (c/o 2024) – Neurology/Psychiatry Clinical Pharmacist at RUHS
• Teressa Benbarka, PharmD (c/o 2025) – Ambulatory Care Psychiatric Pharmacist at LA County Department of Mental Health
• Isabella Fregoso, PharmD (c/o 2025) – Inpatient Clinical Pharmacist, 

• Kayla Pak, PharmD – [email protected]

Residency Program Director

Andy Williams, PharmD BCPP FAAPP
Supervising Clinical Pharmacist, Behavioral Health
PGY2 Psychiatric Pharmacy Residency Director
RUHS- Medical Center, Arlington Campus
9990 County Farm Rd
Riverside, CA 92503
Phone: (951) 358-6551
Email: [email protected]

Esther Moon, PharmD BCPP

Clinical Pharmacist, Behavioral Health

PGY2 Psychiatric Pharmacy Residency Coordinator

Phone: (951) 358-5656

Email: [email protected]