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Sarah Caroline Willis, MA Econ, is
research fellow, Phillip Shann, MSc, is
research associate and Karen Hassell, PhD, is director of the Centre
for Pharmacy Workforce Studies at the University of Manchester.
Correspondence to:
Ms Willis at Centre for Pharmacy Workforce
Studies, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University
of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL
e-mail sarah.willis@manchester.ac.uk |
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SUMMARY
Around 95 per cent of graduates of programmes facilitating entry to
professional occupations such as pharmacy are employed using content-specific
knowledge and skills developed during their degree courses. The proportion
of pharmacy graduates entering preregistration training and then pharmacy
practice has remained largely constant.
However, when it comes to understanding how and why pharmacy students
make early career choices, such as decisions relating to their preregistration
training post, little recent research evidence is available, and much
requires updating in light of recent pharmacy labour market changes in
Britain. There is evidence, for example, that students’ experiences
while undertaking their degree programme, and associated vacation work,
are important influences on their initial choice of professional sector.
There is also evidence from American research that salary, location,
personal fulfilment and the opportunity to use one’s abilities
and education to help patients are important factors affecting career
choices of pharmacy students.
In our study, we aimed to frame reasons for students’ early career
choices in terms of contextual variables, such as learning experiences
and exposure to different aspects and sectors of pharmacy practice as
an undergraduate. Data presented in this article give an indication of
the proportion of respondents intending to undertake preregistration
training at the time of completing the survey, and both the sector and
geographical location where they hoped to complete it. In addition, data
relating to respondents’ evaluation of influences on their choice
of preregistration training post are included.
Full text article PDF 40K |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal