European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate pharmacy students' inspiration to study pharmacy, their perspective regarding future jobs and the factors affecting their decisions.
Methods: Fifth and fourth year pharmacy students were administered the study survey consisting of 4 parts. Descriptive statistics for categorical variables, Man-Whitney test for continuous variables and Chi-square test to check the difference between the two groups were made.
Results: Total of 380 students included in the study. About two thirds of each group expressed their consideration for the university level, their interest in healthcare and pharmacy when they select to join the pharmacy college. Approximately 90 % of both groups stated that they have a desire for working in hospital or community pharmacies after graduation. They also tagged salary, work schedule, benefits and environment as the factors with the greater impact on their decisions. Overall, a non significant difference between the groups was found.
Conclusion: The appropriate university selection and students' interest in pharmacy and healthcare were the major reasons for choosing pharmacy as a career. Community pharmacy and hospital pharmacy were the most common future jobs to be considered after graduation. Salary was the factor with the greater impact from the students' perspectives.