Senior pharmacy students at Ohio Northern University's Raabe College of Pharmacy continue their record of outstanding achievement on the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Resident Matching Program (the "Match"). Match results are based on National Matching Services (NMS) data posted on Friday, April 8, 2016.

ONU's match rate of 78 percent is above the overall national average of 68 percent. This year 57 students who entered the match secured residency positions in a vast array of hospital pharmacy settings across the country. This is an increase in the number of matches over 2015 figures. Since 2015, Ohio Northern has achieved an average match rate of 84 percent.

New pharmacists often choose to continue intensive training in patient care and practice management, in one-year residency experiences, commonly called post-graduate year 1 (PGY1) residencies. Some pharmacists go on to specialize in a certain aspect of pharmacy practice, such as cardiology, psychiatry, oncology, or other specialized fields, commonly called post-graduate year 2 (PGY2) residencies.

The Match provides an orderly process to help applicants obtain positions in residency programs of their choice and to help programs obtain qualified applicants. Similar matching programs are in use in many other health professions including medicine, dentistry, psychology, podiatry, optometry and others.

Steven J. Martin, dean of the ONU Raabe College of Pharmacy, said, "ONU's strong showing is a credit to the outstanding faculty and staff who make the success of their students their overarching mission. Continuing that excellence into the next generation is a top priority as the role of the pharmacist continues to expand into other areas of patient care. The excellent match rate and increased number of graduates in the match for our 2016 graduating class reflects the quality of our program, and our focus on preparing leaders for the profession and for the healthcare system."