Considerations in Determining the Ideal Pharmacy Residency Candidate

To the Editor: We would like to thank Phillips and colleagues for their article in the June 2016 issue of AJPE that identified characteristics of candidates who had a greater likelihood of receiving interviews for and matching to a post-graduate year one (PGY-1) pharmacy residency program. This article expands the literature and discussion of screening pharmacy residency candidates for residency program utilization and knowledge for hopeful residency candidates. Interestingly, the researchers found students who matched had a higher median pharmacy school GPA (3.7 vs 3.5; p Every year the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Match for pharmacy residency programs becomes more competitive as the pool of applicants out-numbers available pharmacy residency positions. Since 2012 to 2016, the number of prospective PGY-1 applicants enrolled in the match has grown from 4500 to more than 5700. (2) Meanwhile the number of available PGY-1 positions has increased by only 38% and continues to fall short with only 3332 PGY-1 positions available in 2016.(2) With the overwhelming number of PGY-1 applicants, programs are forced to streamline the applicant review process using objective screening tools prior to offering initial interviews. (1,3,4) In contrast to exclusively using an objective screening tool to identify specific academic and professional achievements and activities, residency program directors continue to value letters of recommendation and letters of intent in their selection criteria. (3,5,6) These documents supply important details about an applicant's character, aspirations, and examples of their professionalism. (7,8) By devaluing these qualitative documents through a scoring tool, residency programs are limiting their pool of potentially successful residents. If residency applicant committees focused solely on information found in a curriculum vitae (eg, GPA, awards, and the number of leadership positions), highly qualified and motivated candidates may be overlooked. These candidates include individuals with average academic performance or minimal involvement in extracurricular activities due to special circumstances, such as families or financial needs requiring them to work at higher volumes than the average student. This increased volume of patient care experience may take away from a student's ability to academically perform, but would improve their knowledge, attitude and skills in other areas, such as communication with patients or providers. Other excellent candidates may have realized later in their PharmD programs the motivation to complete a residency by understanding the benefit of what further training may bring to their careers. These groups of applicants may not score high based on the objective characteristics found in their applications, but have the passion necessary for success. Additionally, these gifted applicants often demonstrate superior communication skills, unwavering dedication to patient care, and professionalism expressed in their letter of intent. They receive strong support to continue their clinical pharmacy training and accolades from their mentors, who can speak to their success despite adversity, in their letters of recommendation. Applicants with stellar academic performance earning 4. …