Grand River Hospital & St. Mary's General Hospital (Waterloo Region)

*Accreditation-Pending*

Note - Once accreditation is gained by a program, it becomes retroactive to the date that the application seeking accreditation was filed with CPRB. Therefore, programs with Accredited or Accreditation-Pending status may confer a credential such as “Accredited Canadian Pharmacy Resident/ACPR” upon their graduates.


Address:
835 King Street West
Kitchener, ON, N2G 4K9

Director/Contact:
Anthony Amadio, RPh, BScPharm, ACPR, PharmD
Integrated Director of Pharmacy Services
Grand River Hospital and St. Mary's General Hospital
Email: anthony.amadio@grhosp.on.ca 
Cell: 226-753-2900

Program Website: https://www.grhosp.on.ca/

Program

Type: General Hospital-Practice Based

Focus: Acute care

Established In: 2024 (new program)

Number of Positions: 2

Application Deadline: As per PRAMS

Starting Date: August/September 2025

PRAMS (Additional PRAMS requirements to complete the Pharmacy Residency Application and Matching Service (PRAMS) application should be sent through PRAMS when applying to this program by the application deadline): 

Program specific cover letter (maximum word count 250) outlining the reason you want to complete a residency in the Waterloo Region (Grand River and St. Mary's Hospitals)

Estimated Stipend: $35,000 + benefits in lieu

Vacation/Holiday leave: 10 days

Education/Conference Leave: 1-2 conferences as discussed with program coordinator and director.

Program Highlights:

Grand River Hospital (GRH) is Waterloo Region’s largest hospital. We are a 680+ bed comprehensive community hospital that provides patient-centered care to more than 800,000 residents of Waterloo Region and Guelph Wellington. We have two campuses – KW and Freeport, six remote locations for cancer and kidney care, and three community treatment centres.

St. Mary’s General is the second-largest acute care hospital in the St. Joseph’s Health System with 197 beds and a team of over 2,000 staff, physicians and volunteers dedicated to ensuring patients receive the highest-quality care possible. St. Mary’s is home to the Regional Cardiac Centre, Regional Chest Program and Regional Eye Program.

The general acute care residency program in the Waterloo Region is a one year experiential program focused on assisting residents in developing skills necessary to provide “pharmaceutical care” – the provision of direct patient care to promote safe, effective, and cost‐conscious therapy to improve health‐related outcomes. The resident will develop a patient‐centered practice in which they will assume responsibility for a patient’s drug‐related needs while committing to and being held accountable for identifying, preventing, and resolving drug‐related problems (DRPs). The resident will have the opportunity to be an active participant in a variety of different multidisciplinary health teams, where they will work to their full scope and promote the integration of evidence into the decision making process.

The independent practice rotation will function as the last rotation of the Residency and will serve as a consolidation rotation where the resident is the clinical pharmacist for a service.  This serves to help bridge the resident into practice.

The Pharmacy resident will have opportunities to work to full scope, collaborating closely with various interprofessional teams, partnering with patients and their community, completing quality improvement projects, and completing practice research. 

The resident will also be involved in attending or facilitating many teaching and learning activities such as clinical rounds, academic half day sessions, tiered learning, and student therapeutic discussions. 

Core Rotations: 

  • Orientation/Critical Appraisal (4 weeks)
  • Distribution (2 weeks)
  • Institutional Management/Leadership (4 weeks)
  • General Medicine (4 weeks)
  • Clinical Teaching Unit (Internal Medicine) (4 weeks)
  • Cardiology (4 weeks)
  • Intensive Care (4 weeks)
  • Project (7 weeks)
  • Independent Practice/Consolidation (4 weeks) 

Elective Rotations: 

Residents will typically choose up to 3 elective rotations:

  • Emergency Medicine (4 weeks)
  • Oncology (inpatient/outpatient) (4 weeks)
  • Nephrology  (4 weeks)
  • Pediatrics/NICU (4 weeks)
  • Ambulatory Care clinics (4 weeks)
  • Mental Health (4 weeks)
  • Complex Continuing Care/Rehab (3 weeks)
  • Antimicrobial Stewardship (3 weeks)

Required Credentials: Entry-level PharmD or Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy Degree (or equivalent) from an accredited school of pharmacy.

Minimum Required Credentials: Licensed or eligible for immediate licensure as a pharmacist with the Ontario College of Pharmacists.  Ability to meet corporate Occupational Health requirements.

 

Organization

Type: Community Acute Care Hospital (encompasses a General site with various ambulatory clinics and an affiliated long term care facility). Grand River Hospital is also home to the Regional Nephrology, Oncology, and Stroke programs. 

Number of beds:

400+ Acute care beds + 275 rehab and complex continuing care beds

200 acute care beds at St. Mary's General Hospital

Name of Site(s) Residents Attend for Rotations:

  • Grand River Hospital - KW Campus
  • Grand River Hospital - Freeport Campus
  • St. Mary's General Hospital

Affiliation: University of Waterloo

 

Graduates

(new program starting September 2025)