title: Do South Australian pharmacy interns have the educational and behavioural precursors to meet the objectives of Australia's health care reform agenda?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore South Australian (SA) pharmacy interns' values, beliefs and motivations to study pharmacy and their assessment of how well their pharmacy education has prepared them for activities required of all health professionals under Australia's health care reforms.
  
  
  METHODS
  A postal questionnaire was sent to all 136 SA pharmacy interns enrolled in SA intern training programmes in February 2010 (second month of the intern training programme).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixty (44%) of SA pharmacy interns responded; 75% selected pharmacy as a career because of an interest in health-related sciences and 65% valued working with patients. Respondents believed their pharmacy education prepared them for patient care (80%), providing medicine information (72%) and primary health care delivery (68%), but 51% indicated that they were not prepared for multidisciplinary team care.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The positive values, beliefs and motivations expressed by respondents are significant behavioural precursors to meet the requirements of health professionals in Australia's health care reforms. Respondents indicated that their pharmacy education provided appropriate training in a number of relevant professional areas.
authors.affiliation: Quality Use of Medicines and Pharmacy Research Centre, Sansom Institute for Health Research, School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia; Department of Pharmacy Practice, School of Pharmacy, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Vivienne S L
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Mak
authors.forename: Geoff
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: March
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Andrew L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Gilbert
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D004512:Education, Pharmacy / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D010593:Pharmaceutical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000458:organization & administration; D064172:Pharmacy Residencies; D024382:Professional Role; D013021:South Australia; D013339:Students, Pharmacy / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: behaviour; career choice; education; pharmacy interns; preparedness