Perceived motivators, training supports and challenges to career advancement among pharmacists in the Malaysian public healthcare system

OBJECTIVES: To explore the perceived motivators, training supports and challenges to career advancement among fully and provisionally registered pharmacists (FRPs and PRPs) in the Malaysian public service.

METHODS: Nine hundred and fifty-three pharmacists in the public service of Perak State, Malaysia, were invited for participation in an online survey that was conducted in October 2018. Based on a 5-point Likert scale, they were required to respond to 56 items, ranging from the perceived availability and importance of both motivators and training supports, the challenges to career advancement, to the awareness of the need for career planning. Their responses were subsequently dichotomized into 'agree'/'important' and 'disagree'/'not important'.

KEY FINDINGS: Four hundred and eighty pharmacists participated in the survey, yielding a response rate of 51.2%. More than half of them agreed with the inflexibility of working time and the absence of a performance-based salary and promotion scheme. More than 80% of them also highly valued the training in both pharmacy-related areas and management. Apart from inadequate training, no specialization in pharmacy as a profession and the absence of a performance-based promotion scheme were identified as the major challenges to their career advancement. As compared with the PRPs, the FRPs had greater concern over the absence of a performance-based salary and promotion scheme, flexible working time and periodic feedback for their work performance.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate the inadequacy of the current system in providing recognition, training, feedback for work performance and a clear career pathway to pharmacists in the Malaysian public service, which warrants a change.