SIUE School of Pharmacy Graduates Attain Near Perfect Residency Match Rate

For Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy (SOP) graduates seeking to advance their educations and health care careers, pharmacy residency programs provide one such avenue.

Residencies provide postgraduate training, allowing the resident to practice direct patient care and practice management under the supervision of an experienced preceptor. Residents gain a competitive advantage in the job market, more clearly defined career goals, and a better perspective on which area of care best suits their interests.

The SOP works with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) to match applicants into residency positions. Similar to matching programs used in other health professions, including medicine and dentistry, “the Match” provides an orderly process to help applicants obtain positions in residency programs of their choice and to help programs obtain applicants of their choice.

While 66 percent is the national average for being successfully matched as a resident, 90 percent of the SOP’s graduates pursuing residencies obtained a match.

“Our success in residency match reflects the quality of our students and the School’s PharmD program, as well as our amazing faculty's devotion to helping students,” said Jingyang Fan, PharmD, clinical associate professor of pharmacy practice.

In early December, students wishing to pursue residency begin a highly involved process of identifying and subsequently ranking their programs of choice. Similarly, residency programs compile a list ranking the desirable applicants in order of preference. All rank order lists are submitted to ASHP and run through a matching algorithm. The Match then places students into programs based entirely on the preferences of the rank order lists, and the Match list is announced in late spring.

“The CV review the faculty offer, as well as all of the residency happy hours were invaluable in preparing me for my residency application experience,” said fourth year student Cassy Collins, a native of Peoria. “The faculty truly does want to help in any way possible.”

“What a successful year,” said Lisa Lubsch, PharmD, clinical associate professor of pharmacy practice. “I am impressed by these students seeking further training to advance their careers and wish them the best year in training.”

The following SOP students were matched to programs:

Photo: (L-R) SIUE School of Pharmacy’s Dr. Jingyang Fan, Dr. Lisa Lubsch and student Sara Mohiuddin.