The Child, Youth and Family (CYF) rotation is an elective rotation in the Island Health Pharmacy Residency program. This rotation includes caring for patients in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Pediatric Unit (Peds) and Perinatal Unit (PNU) at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.

The three units in which the Pharmacy Resident will work are staffed by inter-professional teams which may include: obstetricians, pediatricians, family physicians, midwives, nurses, respiratory therapists, child-life specialists, social workers, dieticians, students/residents and the clinical pharmacy specialist. The Pharmacy Resident will have the opportunity to interact with the different team members when providing pharmaceutical care to CYF patients. Should the resident wish to complete an elective with a focus in only one of these specific care areas this can be accommodated (e.g. perinatal rotation), otherwise time will be divided among the three units based on patient care needs.

The majority of rotation time is spent on direct patient care activities, including but not limited to:

-Developing and implementing care plans,
-Proposing interventions and discussing care plans with physicians and team members, Monitoring and adjusting medications using therapeutic drug monitoring,
-Documenting interventions and recommendations in the patient’s chart,
-Counselling patients and their families,
-Answering drug information questions (DIRs),
-Assisting in acquiring special authority

The remainder of the time is comprised of working on assigned projects or presentations, and participating in therapeutic discussions. The resident is provided with informal feedback on a daily basis and is formally evaluated at the rotation midpoint and at the end of rotation by their preceptor.