First-year residency candidates' experience in various areas of pharmacy practice.

Objective. To determine the extent of experience or exposure pharmacy residency candidates had in various areas of hospital pharmacy practice and to identify any candidate-specific variables that correlated with a larger extent of experience. Methods. Over a 3-year period, a self-assessment survey instrument was administered to 116 postgraduate first-year (PGY1) pharmacy practice residency candidates to evaluate their extent of experience within various areas of hospital pharmacy practice such as patient care activities, drug information, and drug distribution/control. Results. The residency candidates reported the greatest amount of experience in patient counseling, working with pharmacy databases, taking medication histories, pharmacokinetics, and outpatient dispensing procedures. They had less experience with medical emergencies, parenteral nutrition, and intravenous admixture techniques. Overall, there was no correlation between class rank, advanced pharmacy practice experiences, geographic region, or...