ABSTRACT
Background: There is little information available about pharmacy students' preferences for potential careers in Africa, which has raised concerns among licensing agencies, employers, and the institutions they graduate from.
Objective: This study sought to investigate the career paths and preferences made by pharmacy students in the University of Benin, as well as the variables influencing those choices and determining the degree of satisfaction among pharmacy students on their academic curriculum.
Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted using a previously validated and employed questionnaire. The questionnaire comprises questions on future job choices and factors that affect the pharmacy student career choice as well as their degree of satisfaction with the academic curriculum was used to collect data from 400l, 500l and 600l students of the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benin.
Results: A total of 227 questionnaires were retrieved. Many of the respondents were male (52%) studying for the Doctor of Pharmacy degree. The most common factors influencing their choice were salary and benefit (80%) and opportunity for career growth and advancement (71%) and personal fulfillment and job satisfaction (69%). Respondents’ top three career choices were community pharmacy, research and development and industrial pharmacy and majority of the respondent agree that their expectation about the pharmacy curriculum was met.
Conclusion: This study emphasized the importance of understanding job preferences and the factors influencing career choice of respondents and the respondents’ perception about their academic curriculum.
Keywords: Career paths, career preference, pharmacy students, University of Benin.
