Abstract:

Background: The pharmacist roles and activities have adapted to meet changing social and health care needs from being a career centred on drugs. Pharmacy students after graduating from school may work in different pharmacy practice careers such as hospital practice, community practice, industry practice, teacher, researcher and other recognized practices. So this study aims to determine the career preference and factors influencing career choice among pharmacy undergraduate students at CUHAS.

Methodology: This was a cross sectional prospective study conducted for a period of one month involving third and fourth year undergraduate pharmacy students. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire after acquiring the ethical clearance from the research committee. Association was considered statistically significant when a p value of < 0.05 was acquired on analysis performed using a chi squared test.

Results: This study recruited 48 (55.2%) third year and 39 (44.8%) fourth year Bachelor of pharmacy students in which a total of 19 (21.8%) students described to prefer working in hospital field which the same amount was preferred for regulatory bodies practice. Major factors described to influence these choices were 63 (72.4%) training in work place, 66 (75.9%) interaction with pharmacists and 70 (80.5%) self-employment opportunity.

Conclusion: Pharmacy undergraduate students at CUHAS prefer practicing firstly in hospital and regulatory bodies at an equal frequency whereby different factors have been described as being associated with the career preferences and choice such as curriculum content, faculty member advice, opportunity for promotion and advancement and finally opportunity for health insurance acquiring.