Choosing Pharmacy: Job Opportunities in Any Region of the Country and Versatile Career Perspectives

Knowledge of factors that have influenced career choices of current students may help higher education institutions plan and run effective admission campaigns to attract prospective students. In addition, this knowledge may be instrumental in didactic and experiential education delivered by faculty. Presently, many higher education institutions with pharmacy programs have difficulty filling in available seats. At the same time, the employers struggle to recruit pharmacists as there are significantly fewer professionals than the market needs. In the current study, we surveyed 1 st –2 nd and 5 th year students (n = 219) of one pharmacy program to evaluate: 1) factors that motivated the choice of pharmacy education; 2) professional degrees beyond pharmacy that were also considered; 3) individuals who influenced the choice of pharmacy. Over half of study participants (60 %) reported also considering a medical degree, while 27 % considered only pharmacy. Over half of study participants (57 %) reported they chose pharmacy on their own, while 40 % and 10 % reported influence of parents and friends, respectively. In total, 20 % and 45% of respondents reported having family members with pharmacy and medical education, respectively. Among nineteen examined factors of influence to choose pharmacy measured via 5-point Likert scale (from 5 – “very important” to 1 – “not important”), the average score of 4.0 or above was found in the following six factors: 1) “opportunity to receive government-subsidized education free of charge”; 2) “a profession with high employer demand”; 3) “a profession with guaranteed financial stability”; 4) “a profession with versatile career perspectives”; 5) “a profession with job opportunities in any region of the country”; 6) “a profession with good work-life balance”. In addition, we identified statistically significantly lower scores for students in their 5th year compared to 1st and 2nd year students for two of the studied factors: “a career in healthcare” and “opportunities to do research”. These findings may be of value to pharmacy programs in higher education institutions across Russia.