Perception and Career Preferences among First and Final-Year Pharmacy Students in a Nigerian University: A Comparative Study

S. Aliyu & T. A. Idris ISSN: 2814-1423 31 Nigerian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Research Vol. 8 Issue.1 April, 2024. p-ISSN: 2579-1419 e-ISSN: 2814-1423 Perception and Career Preferences among First and Final-Year Pharmacy Students in a Nigerian University: A Comparative Study Shuaibu Aliyu*1, Tahir Mustapha Idris2 1Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria – Nigeria 2Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice, Bayero University Kano – Nigeria Email: [email protected]du.ng, doi.org.10.55639/njpbr.1031.003 Abstract Over the years, the scope of pharmacy practice and the professional role of pharmacists have evolved. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to assess the perception, career preference, perception of pharmacy students about other health professions, and factors influencing the choice of pharmacy among the study population at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. The research was a comparative crosssectional survey among firstand final-year students using a self-administered questionnaire. A MannWhitney test was used for a statistical comparison between the two groups, explorative factor analysis was used to explore the factors that influenced career choice among the students, and the results were presented as descriptive statistics. The results showed that students in both groups had good perceptions of pharmacy and other healthcare professions, with an overall mean perception of 4.47 and 4.31 about the profession for firstand final-year students, respectively. A significant statistical difference in the profession was observed only in “pharmacy is the ideal profession for life” (p=.009) and “I definitely want a career in pharmacy” (p=.001). The most preferred career choices for the first and final-year students were industrial 30(40.00 %) and community pharmacy 51(43.97 %) practices respectively. The main factors influencing career choice among the students were: career advice from secondary school, my high school grades allowed me to study pharmacy, I was influenced by a pharmacist I know as a role model, I enjoyed studying science during secondary education, influence of family, and influence of friends each had an eigenvalue >1. In conclusion, the study established that final-year students had a higher preference for community pharmacy practice in contrast to industrial practice for first-year students, there was no significant statistical difference in the perceptions of pharmacy among the two categories of students, and the factors influencing their choice were uncovered. Keywords: Ahmadu Bello University, career, pharmacy, practice, preference, student Introduction There a vast opportunities and career choices in pharmacy profession. Globally, pharmacy practice has undergone radical change in terms of re-professionalization, a renewal of patient focus, and the development of approaches, tools, and competencies to provide direct patient care (Hasan et al, 2010) due to rapid expansion of function and increase in professional diversity (Hepler & Strand, 1990). In this regard, pharmacists have been recognized as experts on drugs and considered an integral part of the healthcare system. They are S. Aliyu & T. A. Idris ISSN: 2814-1423 32 considered trusted and accessible healthcare providers because they make significant differences in the lives of the people in the communities they serve (Flanigan & Santanello, 2014). As a health professional, the pharmacist has significant responsibilities and contributions to maintaining the health of society (Beedemariam et al, 2014). Hepler and Strand first articulated the suggestion of pharmacy practice focused on patient care in 1990 as pharmaceutical care (Siracuse et al, 2008). Sequel to the paradigm shift in the pharmacy profession, the World Health Organization coined the term “Seven Stars Pharmacist,” referring to the extended role of a pharmacist. It is therefore expected that students should know the full range of specialties and practice areas in pharmacy which will aid them in making an informed decision about their career choice. Career awareness is primarily needed to educate students about the program at the time of entry, and career opportunities (Abdelhadi et al, 2014), and the career path of an individual can be influenced by huge factors as cited in the literature (Wilson & Hallett, 1985; Feifel et al, 1999; Beedemariam et al, 2014; Hanna et al, 2016). Therefore, the objectives of this study were to assess the perception, career preference, perception of pharmacy students about other health professions and factors influencing the choice of pharmacy among the study population at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. It has been shown that students’ perceptions and career choices influence professional socialization. Professional socialization has been defined as the extent to which students are familiar with their careers, the relationship between their careers, and their confidence in reaching their career goals (Keshishian, 2010). Furthermore, such studies can help to identify gaps in career guidance programs, factors influencing career choice and offer suggestion to better prepare students for successful transition from university to employment. Methods Ethical Approval The Ahmadu Bello University Committee for the Use of Human Subjects for Research (ABUCUHSR) has approved the study. Participation in the study was voluntary, and both written and verbal consent of the students were also sought. Study Setting The study was carried out among firstand final-year pharmacy students of the faculty of pharmaceutical sciences, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Nigeria. The faculty was the pioneer school of pharmacy in the then northern region and has a geographical spread of students from different parts of the country as well as neighbouring countries. Study Design A comparative cross-sectional study was used for data collection from a purposive sample of both firstand final-year pharmacy students who consented to participate in the study. Direct entry students were excluded from being part of the firstyear students. Research Instrument and Data Collection S. Aliyu & T. A. Idris ISSN: 2814-1423 33 The research instrument was adopted from the studies of Alhaddad, (2018), Beedemariam et al., (2014), Hanna et al., (2016) and Shakeel et al., (2013). The final questionnaire is composed of five (5) sections based on the objectives of the study, viz: demographic information, the career choice of students, students’ perceptions about the pharmacy profession, students’ perceptions about other health care professions and influencing factors for career choice. Questions on the perception of the profession and factors influencing career choice were presented as 5-Likertlike scale responses, viz: strongly disagree to strongly agree. Furthermore, questions on the perception about other healthcare professions were expressed with 4-Likert scale responses, viz: higher status than a pharmacy, the same status as pharmacy, lower status than pharmacy and I don’t know. The research instrument was pilottested on a sample of 30 students. All the necessary modifications were made. Students were met in their lecture theatre while waiting for lectures. The purpose of the study was explained to them, and their informed consent was sought. Finally, the instrument was then self-administered on a purposive sample of students who consented to participate in the study. Data Analysis The 5 Likert responses were coded as 1 for strongly agree, 2 for agree, 3 for neutral, 4 for disagree, and 5 for strongly disagree in Statistical Application Package for Social Sciences., version 26 (SPPS26) for all the analysis. Preferences were presented as mean±SD values of the 5 Likert scale responses, and the Mann-Whitney U test was used for statistical comparison between the two groups of students since the data were not normally distributed. The mean values for the perception were interpreted as 1-1.8 “strongly disagree”, 1.81-2.6 “disagree”, 2.61-3.4 “neutral”, 3.41-4.2 “agree” and 4.21-5.0 “strongly agree”. Values less than 2.61 indicate negative perception. In contrast, values above 3.4 indicate positive perception, and the higher the value, the higher the level of perception. Similarly, questions on the perception of pharmacy students about other healthcare professions were coded as 3 for “higher status than a pharmacy”, 2 for “the same status as pharmacy”, 1 for “lower status than pharmacy” and 0 for “I don’t know” and the mean values of the perceptions were interpreted as 0 – 0.74 for “I don’t know”, 0.75 – 1.49., for “lower status than pharmacy”, 1.50 – 2.24 for “the same status as pharmacy”, and 2.25 – 2.99 “higher status than a pharmacy”, The mean value of items for each section gives the overall perception of students. Furthermore, exploratory factor analysis was also used to explore the factors that statistically influenced the choice of career path among the final-year students in the University. Principal components analysis based on Kaiser’s criterion for those factors with an eigenvalue of >1 was used to explore the factors that influenced the career choice among the students. The suitability of principal components analysis was assessed using Kaiser–Meyer–Oklin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy at a recommended KMO value was 0.6. A level of statistical S. Aliyu & T. A. Idris ISSN: 2814-1423 34 significance, p<0.05 was considered for all the analyses. Results Majority of the participants in both groups were male, 44 (58.7% and 76 (65.5%) for firstand final-years students respectively. The mean age was 19.39 ± 3.26 years for first-year students and 23.41 ± 1.16 years for final-year students. Majority of the participants were Hausa/Fulani (firstVs final-years students was 39 (52.0%) and 60 (51.6%) respectively) who were mostly Muslims (first-year Vs final-year was 61 (81.3 %) and 84 (72.4%) respectively) and had chosen Pharmacy as the preferred course (72 (96.0%) and 108 (93.0%) for first and final year students respectively. They had a mean CGPA of 3.38 ± 0.31 and 3.46 ± 0.28 for first and final year students respectively. A significant statistical difference between the two groups was observed only with respect to the age of the participants (p<.05) (Table 1). The most preferred career choice for firstyear students was Industrial Pharmacy 30(40%) and Community Pharmacy 51(43.97%) for final-year student. This was followed by Hospital Pharmacy for both groups (16(21.33%) for first-year students and 15(12.93%) for final-year students). (Figure 1). Students in both groups reported favourable perceptions about the pharmacy profession with respect to all the items in the questionnaire which were within the cut-off values of 3.41 to 5. However, a significant statistical difference between the two groups of students was observed only with “Pharmacy is the ideal profession for life” (p=.009), and “I definitely want a career in pharmacy” (p=0.01) (Table 2). Student’s perceptions of other healthcare professions were relatively higher than their perception of pharmacy profession and a significant statistical difference (p<0.05) between the two groups was observed (Table 3). The KMO values was 0.629 and 0.687 for firstand final-year students respectively while the Bartlett's test of sphericity for both groups were (approximated Chi square of 1016.807 degree of freedom of 435 at p<0.001. The factors influencing career choice among the final-year students were arranged in order of decreasing eigenvalue. The factors that were within the cut-off eigenvalue of ≥ 1 following factor analysis were career advice from secondary school, my high school grades allowed me to study pharmacy, I was influenced by a pharmacist I know as a role model, I enjoyed studying science during secondary education, influence of family and influence of friends with eigenvalue of 5.333, 2.226, 2.062, 1.287, 1.208 and 1.012 respectively, which explained a total of 59.67 % of the variance of the data set (Table 4). Discussion This study explored the perception and career preference among final-year students at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. Firstyear students were used for comparison since they were assumed to lack prior knowledge about the pharmacy profession. The demographic characteristics of the patients were the same except for their mean age. The difference observed in the mean age between the two groups was not S. Aliyu & T. A. Idris ISSN: 2814-1423 35 surprising as there was a lag of about five years that exists between the firstand finalyear. Choosing a professional career is an important step that influences the aspirations of students (Adegun & Aremu, 2013). The high preference for community pharmacy practice observed among final-year students could be a result of their exposure to different career prospects in pharmacy from the curriculum and their belief that community pharmacy practice will provide them with the opportunity to practice independently. Furthermore, at the 400level, most of the students go to either community pharmacy or hospital pharmacy, and sometimes they combine the two for their mandatory six-month Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) exercise to acquaint them with the practical experience of the profession. As a consequence, this might be a possible reason for the high preference for community pharmacy among final year students. In contrast, the first-year students showed a high preference for industrial pharmacy practice. This could be a result of a lack of proper awareness and information about the various career prospects in pharmacy quite from secondary schools as well as the misconception about industrial pharmacy as the easiest way to get a job and earn more. This can be attested to the finding of (Shen et al, 2014) in a study in Australia where a majority of participants perceived industries as offering career opportunities with high financial rewards and incentives. In comparison with other studies on the subject, a study by (Ubaka et al, 2013) in 3 universities in south-eastern and southsouthern Nigeria demonstrated hospital and community pharmacy as the preferred career choice among 400-level pharmacy students. A study in the UK has reported community pharmacy as the most preferred career by both first and final-year students (Wilson et al, 2006). A study from Malaysia reported that in private universities, students showed more interest in community pharmacy practice, while in public universities, they were more interested in hospital pharmacy (Hasan et al, 2010). In contrast, hospital pharmacy has been reported as the most preferred career choice among students in Jordan and Ethiopia (Abdelhadi et al, 2014; Beedemariam et al, 2014). Besides, industrial and hospital pharmacies were the most preferred choices of pharmacy students to start their careers in Pakistan, as reported by (Shakeel et al, 2013). The perceived perceptions of students about pharmacy and other healthcare professions can influence their decision about the choice of a particular career path. Overall, students in the two groups have demonstrated an excellent perception of the pharmacy profession. This could be due to the good academic performance portrayed by the students, as indicated by their CGPA. It is generally known that good academic performance tends to have a positive influence on students’ perceptions (Hellen & Kitainge, 2016). Most of the students upheld good professional attitudes on all the questions asked about the profession. A remarkable statistical difference was observed only in the students’ perception of “pharmacy is the ideal profession for life” and “I definitely want a career in pharmacy”. This significantly means the students had relatively the same attitude S. Aliyu & T. A. Idris ISSN: 2814-1423 36 towards the pharmacy profession. The finding of this study was in agreement with the finding of a study conducted by (Wilson et al, 2006) at Aston University, UK, and contradicted the finding of another similar study by (Beedemariam et al, 2014) in Ethiopia. It is suggested that career guidance and academic counselling should be incorporated into the curriculum of secondary schools to equip the students with the requisite information they need about the profession. An overview of the literature from different research perspectives reveals that study choice and career decisions made by young adults have their roots earlier in childhood (Tuijl & Van, 2016). Furthermore, the World Health Organization has recognized the various roles of pharmacists in the healthcare delivery system. Pharmacists play an essential role by serving as a link between patients and medical teams, developing an evidencebased care plan, and patient follow-up to achieve the desired therapeutic outcomes (Abduelkarem & Hamrrouni, 2016). The study found that the majority of the students had the perceived feeling that other healthcare professions had higher status than the pharmacy profession. This is not good for the profession, as teamwork and interprofessional collaborations with other healthcare professionals are essential for effective service delivery. The statistical difference (p<.05) in the perception of students about other healthcare professionals can be depicted from the knowledge gap that existed between the two groups. It is well known in the literature that a variety of factors affect students’ decisions for a career choice in a particular discipline. The choice of pharmacy as a career by students in both groups was statistically influenced by the following factors as determined by the principal components analysis: “careers advice from secondary school”, “my high school grades allowed me to study pharmacy”, “I was influenced by a pharmacist I know as a role model”, “I enjoyed studying science during secondary education”, “influence of family and “influence of friends”. These factors were reported in this order, with career guidance from secondary school being recognized as the most important factor that influenced the career path of these students. In addition to these, “experience of working in a pharmacy” had also influenced the choice of pharmacy by firstyear students. These factors were also reported in the previous studies on the subject (Pascual, 1960; Kiersma et al, 2010; Njeri, 2013; Abduelkarem & Hamrrouni, 2016; Hanna et al, 2016; Loo et al, 2017; Alhomoud et al, 2019). It has been established that the factors that influence career decisions are multiple, ranging from individuals’ characteristics to the perceived benefits and attractiveness of particular specialties, to factors associated with medical school curricula, such as the experience of the chosen specialty (Cleland et al, 2014). In contrast to our findings, a study in the south-eastern part of Nigeria by (Ubaka et al, 2013) revealed that advancement in opportunities, salary and work environment were the major factors being considered as triggers for career choice. Another study by (Alhaddad, 2018) in KSA demonstrated that family members S. Aliyu & T. A. Idris ISSN: 2814-1423 37 wanted to work in a well-respected profession, desire to work in a popular and in-demand profession, pharmacy is the closest profession next to medicine and wanted a job involving direct contact with patients were the factors that encouraged students to study pharmacy. This kind of study has implications for policy and practice in pharmaceutical sciences. The students in the two groups had demonstrated differing choices for different career aspects of the pharmacy profession. None of the students expressed interest in pharmacy journalism and medical sales representatives. This is not surprising, as most of the students immediately after graduation have a job waiting for them from their respective state governments, particularly those from the northern part of the country. However, the result indicated a sharp difference between the most preferred career and other careers. This calls for increased awareness about the different career prospects in pharmacy in the form of career talks to science students in secondary schools and a detailed description of all the career prospects in the pharmacy curriculum to acquaint the students with the different opportunities afforded by the pharmacy profession. It is also vital for future workforce planning depending on the needs of the community, employers, government, and regulatory agencies. Finally, the study would open ideas to future researchers for further investigations on the different factors affecting the low interest of students in the pharmacy profession and its realistic resolutions which is a major concern in the majority of countries and Nigeria alike. This study had several limitations. There was no randomization of the participants. They were selected based on their readiness to participate in the study, which may lead to selection bias. The study was also conducted at one site; as such, the findings could only be considered a preliminary and could not be generalized to the whole region. This study demonstrated that final-year pharmacy students had a higher preference for community pharmacy practice in contrast to industrial practice for first-year students. Careers advice from secondary school, my high school grades allowed me to study pharmacy, I was influenced by a pharmacist I know as a role model, I enjoyed studying science during secondary education, the influence of both family and friends were found to be the factor that statistically influenced career choice among both categories of students. In addition, experience of working in a pharmacy had been found to also influence career choice among first-year students. Students in both groups ranked other healthcare professions as having higher status than pharmacy. It is therefore recommended that career talk about the pharmacy profession at secondary schools, influence of role models, family and friends should be considered in guiding prospective students to make an informed decision about prospects and career choices in the pharmacy profession. Declaration of Interest None declared S. Aliyu & T. A. 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