title: Influences on Malaysian pharmacy students' career preferences.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify and evaluate factors affecting the career preferences of fourth-year bachelor of pharmacy (BPharm) students in Malaysia in the presence of a 4-year period of mandatory government service.
  
  
  METHODS
  A validated self-administered questionnaire was used in this cross-sectional study to collect data from final-year BPharm students enrolled at 3 government-funded universities and 1 private university in Malaysia. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three hundred fourteen students responded (213 from public universities and 101 from the private university). Approximately 32% of public university students and 37% of private university students ranked their own interest in pharmacy as the reason for undertaking pharmacy degree studies; 40.4% of public and 19.8% of private university respondents stated that they would enter a nonpharmacy-related career upon graduation if given the choice. Public university students ranked hospital pharmacy as their choice of first career setting (4.39, p = 0.001), while private students ranked community pharmacy first (4.1, p = 0.002). On a scale of 1 to 5, salary received the highest mean score (3.9 and 4.0, p = 0.854) as the extrinsic factor most influencing their career choice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Final-year students at Malaysian public universities were most interested in hospital pharmacy practice as their first career step upon graduation, while private university students were most interested in community pharmacy. The top 3 extrinsic factors rated as significant in selecting a career destination were salary, benefits, and geographical location.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, International Medical University, No 126, Jalan Jalil Perkasa 19, Bukit Jalil, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. shahzad_hasan@imu.edu.my
authors.forename: Syed Shahzad
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Hasan
authors.forename: David Weng
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Kwai Chong
authors.forename: Keivan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ahmadi
authors.forename: Wong Pei
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Se
authors.forename: Mohammed Azmi
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hassali
authors.forename: Ernieda Mohammed
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Hata
authors.forename: Muhammed Abdul
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hadi
authors.forename: Sathvik Belagodu
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Sridhar
authors.forename: Syed Imran
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: Low Bee
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Yean
authors.forename: Benny
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Efendie
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004512:Education, Pharmacy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia; D008297:Male; D013339:Students, Pharmacy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult