Samantha Sutton knew early on that she wanted to pursue a career in healthcare, but it wasn’t until her junior year of high school that she realized her specific calling.
After years of suffering from severe eczema, she had finally found relief thanks to new medication and as she mulled her options for college, someone mentioned to her the possibility of pharmacy school.
Samantha Sutton
“It just clicked,” Sutton said. “I hadn’t been able to put my finger on what was the right fit for me. Pharmacy made so much sense and then that’s all I wanted to do. I wanted to be able to help people in the same way they helped me and drastically changed my life.”
Sutton, who is from Wapakoneta, Ohio, was accepted into The University of Toledo College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and is set to graduate with her Pharm.D. in May. Soon after, she’ll head to Arizona to continue her training with a prestigious pharmacy residency at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix.
It’s a dream come true for Sutton, who is one of 54 students from this year’s graduating class who matched into a one-year residency program.
Unlike medicine, where post-graduation residency training is a requirement, pharmacy residencies are optional, and pharmacists can enter the workforce directly out of pharmacy school.
However, many specialized clinical roles require the additional post-graduate education gained through residency.
Dr. Julie Murphy, associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, said 55% of this year’s class chose to participate in residency match, up from 40% last year.
UToledo’s match rate of 96.4% is first among Ohio’s seven accredited pharmacy schools and sixth out of 148 schools in the nation.
“Pharmacy residency is highly competitive, and it’s so rewarding for us to see that all of the hard work our students put in is paying off,” Murphy said. “As faculty members, our job is to prepare our students for whatever career path they want to take.”
For Sutton, who hopes to one day specialize in oncology or transplantation, continuing on at the Mayo Clinic — which has a robust practice and sterling reputation in both specialties — is an incredible opportunity.
It’s also one she nearly talked herself out of as she considered where she might be able to land a residency.
“I almost didn’t apply,” she said. “I thought there were so many other people who were better than me, but I had a lot of very good mentors within the College of Pharmacy who helped me with that and pushed me to apply to the programs I truly wanted to go to, and Mayo Clinic was my top choice. I’ve loved everything about this program, and I wouldn’t change anything if I were to do it all over again.”
Pharmacy students who elect to pursue a residency after graduation interview with prospective programs and then rank their top choices. Residency programs also rank their top applicants, and the matches are made by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
Sutton is one of three UToledo students going to Arizona for residency. One of the others is her husband, Logan Shirk, whom she married April 19, just two weeks ahead of graduation.
Shirk, also from Wapakoneta, matched with the VA Phoenix Health Care System.
Of the 54 students going into residency, 32 are staying in Ohio, with several of those remaining in Toledo.
Matthew Tauzik
That’s the case for Matthew Tauzik, who matched into the ambulatory care residency program at The University of Toledo Medical Center.
Originally from Macomb, Michigan, Tauzik chose UToledo based on its not-too-close-but-not-too-far location from home and what he felt would be a strong support system.
“The more research I did into it, the more I felt like it was the program and the place for me,” he said. “Every professor that I’ve interacted with, I feel they really do care for the student. Both inside and outside of school, they make themselves available to us and help us with whatever we need. That’s something I’ve seen throughout my time here and something I very much appreciate.”
The last three years, Tauzik also worked at the UTMC outpatient pharmacy, which allowed him to gain experience working with patients and interacting with a variety of other healthcare professionals. He particularly enjoyed the patient counseling he was able to do through UTMC’s meds to beds program, which delivers post-discharge medications to patients prior to them leaving the hospital.
Those experiences, he said, helped him decide what he wanted to do post-graduation, and it was a great relief to see he’d matched at UTMC for residency.
“I’ve already built a community here — my mentors, my preceptors, my coworkers. Being able to work more closely with them over the next year was something that drew me to stay in Toledo for another year and I’m really excited to grow on that experience, build on those skills and take that next step.”
Russ Smith, senior hospital administrator and chief pharmacy officer at UTMC, said the hospital’s residency program — which recently received an eight-year reaccreditation, is an excellent choice for UToledo students who want to stay in the region.
“We have a strong relationship with the College of Pharmacy, and we’re always pleased to see locally trained talent choosing to continue their education with us,” he said. “Our program is built on a culture of continuous improvement, interdisciplinary collaboration and an unwavering dedication to developing competent, compassionate and practice-ready pharmacists.”
Over the past five years, Smith said, 90% of UTMC’s residents have been successful in achieving their top-choice career paths immediately post-residency, and 20% of the hospital’s pharmacy residents have ultimately stayed to practice pharmacy at UTMC.
Murphy, who is herself a graduate of UToledo’s pharmacy school, also said it’s rewarding to see students choosing to remain in the region after graduation.
“Between their experiential training, the internships they’ve had while they’re here in Toledo, many of our students feel connected to the community and that makes them want to stay,” she said. “That’s a good thing for us and a good thing for Toledo. They’re taking the skills they’ve learned here at UToledo and putting them to use caring for our community.”
After Ohio, Michigan was the second most common residency location with five, followed by Arizona with three placements. In all, students matched into residency programs in 15 different states.
