A marathon, not a sprint: Growth and evolution of community-based pharmacy residency education and training

Community-based pharmacy residency programs, which emerged over 35 years ago, have grown to 218 programs to be the second largest first-year postgraduate pharmacy residency education and training program in the United States. This paper is intended to provide a history and current status of community-based pharmacy residency education and training. Multiple major milestones and activities, including funding, advisory panels, training for meeting the Accreditation Standard and other resources have contributed to the evolution of community-based pharmacy residency programs. Over the years, the community-based residency program education and training guidelines and standards have changed to focus on the individual. This focus has resulted in the emergence of new practice sites for training such as health-system community pharmacies and federally-qualified healthcare centers. The longitudinal learning experiences of the Standard enable residency graduates to function as community-based pharmacist practitioners (CPPs). CPPs provide leadership and patient care services to meet the needs of patients in the communities that they serve. The next generation of CPPs will lead the advancement and transformation of community-based pharmacy practice and provide increased access to care and improved patient outcomes.