Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Keywords

۱٫ Introduction

۲٫ Methods

۲٫۱٫ Data analysis

۳٫ Results

۴٫ Discussion

۵٫ Conclusions

Funding

Author contribution

Declaration of Competing Interest

References

Abstract

Background
The number of students enrolled in the colleges of pharmacy in Saudi Arabia is high, and the number of pharmacy graduates expected to join the workforce in the coming years is expected to grow. There are limited number of studies that assess factors influencing pharmacy students’ career choices in Saudi Arabia in the literature. The aim of this study was to assess the factors that influence career goals and to investigate students’ perceptions about their career goals.

Methods
This study was a prospective cross-sectional survey targeting PharmD students in their last year (i.e. interns) in the academic year of 2018 – ۲۰۱۹٫ A questionnaire containing four parts and total questions of 32 was completed by interns. Data collected and analyzed using Qualtrics. This study was reviewed and approved by the Unit of Biomedical Ethics Research Committee at King Abdulaziz University.

Results
۹۳ were reachable via email and all of them attended the interview and completed the survey (100% response rate). The most important job considerations were: work environment (67.7%), advancement opportunities (55.9%), salary (52.7%), benefits (40.9%), flexible work schedule (34%), and finally geographic region (29%). The top ranked career goal upon graduation were in industry and drug company (35.5%), clinical pharmacy (26.9%), (14%) academics/research and hospital pharmacy setting (inpatient/outpatient) (14%) each, and regulatory and community pharmacy (3.2% and 4.3%, respectively)

Conclusion
This study showed that work environment, advancement opportunities, and salary were the most important job consideration for pharmacy interns. The top ranked career goals were industry and drug company followed by clinical pharmacy. Further studies across Saudi Arabia are needed to confirm our results.

۱٫ Introduction

Pharmacy education in Saudi Arabia (SA) has been receiving a lot of attention from both government and private sectors as the numbers of colleges have leaped from one college of pharmacy in 1999 to 27 colleges in pharmacy in 2018. (Alomran et al., 2018) Furthermore, this growth has been reflected on the quality and outcomes of some of these colleges as they acquire national and international accreditations and rank in the top colleges of pharmacy in the world in various academic rankings of world universities such as the QS ranking, where King Abdulaziz University ranks 50–۱۰۰ in the field of Pharmacy. (QS Ranking, 2020) Most colleges in Saudi Arabia now offer a Doctor of Pharmacy degree (PharmD), in which students must complete a six-year entry level program including an experiential education period where they apply their knowledge in practical settings for a minimum of one academic year; while others still offer a 5-year Bachelor of Pharmacy degree (Almaghaslah et al., 2019). In 2018, the number of students enrolled at all colleges of pharmacy in SA was estimated to be 14,004 students and by 2022 the number of pharmacy graduates is expected to be 3,118 pharmacists that are ready to join the workforce.