title: Factors influencing the selection of rural practice locations for early career pharmacists in Victoria.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify factors influencing the choice of practice location for early career pharmacists working and living in Victoria.
  
  
  METHODS
  Survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  Victorian pharmacies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pharmacists living in Victoria in April 2009, who had registered with the Pharmacy Board of Victoria after 1 October 2004, stratified into major city and rural areas.
  
  
  METHODS
  Questionnaire responses analysed via descriptive statistics, chi-square and direct logistic regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Early career pharmacists were more likely to practice in a rural location if they had undertaken a rural internship, had a spouse or partner with a non-metropolitan background and were not practicing in a hospital pharmacy. Pharmacists who had lived in a rural area during their childhood and had studied pharmacy at a rural university were four times more likely to have undertaken a rural internship than those that studied at a major city university.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The strongest indicator for future practice location was a pharmacist's internship location. Childhood location and pharmacy education location were indicators of internship location. Pharmacists with a rural childhood location, especially those who study at rural universities, are more likely to work in rural areas.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy and Applied Science, La Trobe University Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Cristen A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Fleming
authors.forename: M Joy
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Spark
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010595:Pharmacists; D011365:Professional Practice Location; D012424:Rural Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014739:Victoria; D055815:Young Adult