Development of a critical care pharmacist career coaching and professional development program at an academic medical center

Continuing professional development is a lifelong process that is multifaceted, holistic, self-directed, and is not a replacement for continuing education. Through ongoing professional development, pharmacists can improve their skill set in a broad range of clinical, educational, research, and administrative activities. Not only does development of this growth benefit the individual pharmacist, but also the institution and pharmacy profession. In 2020, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists published an updated position paper on critical care pharmacy services. A new recommendation in the update was to create mechanisms for critical care pharmacists to develop their career and professional development. Herein, we describe our experience with the development and implementation of a critical care pharmacy career professional development program using peer-to-peer coaching within a large academic medical center. Professional development is not a one size fits all and should be individualized. We initially focused on developing research skills based on initial surveys. Afterwards professional development was varied we created new resources such as journal referee "how-to" and teaching in a flipped classroom.