Drake Residency and Fellowships

Fellowships: 

• Vanadro Drug Development Fellowship Program

Residencies:

• Drake-Mercy Medical Center Residency Program

Residency and Fellowship Information

A residency is a salaried postgraduate training program in a defined area of pharmacy practice. Residencies are generally one-year commitments and are organized so that residents receive training in professional practice in addition to management activities. Residencies entail daily activities in pharmacy services in addition to the completion of a residency project. Residency projects range from clinical research in hospital settings to the implementation of new pharmacy services in the outpatient arena.

Residencies are intended for those planning patient-care and practice-oriented careers. For example, careers in clinical pharmacy generally require the completion of a residency. It is generally held that a one-year residency is worth four years or more of practice experience, and increasingly, employers indicate a strong preference towards applicants who have completed a pharmacy practice residency.

Similar to a residency, a fellowship is a postgraduate program designed to prepare the participant to become an independent researcher. Fellowships are generally two-year commitments, and are highly-individualized to the participant’s career goals, with their research interests as the focus of education and training. Fellowships primarily develop competency in the scientific research process, emphasizing the conceptualizing, conducting, and reporting of research.

Fellowships are two-year programs, often structured so that one year is spent becoming a clinical expert in a specific area, and the other year is spent developing expertise in the research process. Activities emphasized as far as research goes are grant writing, hypothesis development, study design, data collection and analysis, and manuscript preparation/publication.

Fellowships are intended for those planning research-oriented careers, for example, research coordinators in the pharmaceutical industry. Graduates of fellowship programs should have the capability to conduct collaborative research or function as a principal investigator.

Drake is a partner in the following Residencies and Fellowships:

Preparing for Residencies & Fellowships During the Professional Program

The College provides numerous opportunities to learn about and prepare for residencies and fellowships including, but not limited to the following activities and resources: