A cross-sectional study was conducted among pharmacy students to determine
factors influencing their choice of work place and to evaluate whether a one-year
hospital pre-registration training programme had any effect on these choices.
Questionnaires were distributed to graduating students at the School of
Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia. The questionnaires were again
sent to the same group of students by post at the end of their pre-registration
training year. The response rate during the follow-up stage was 46%. Results
indicated that students in the survey were more interested in independent and chain
community pharmacies compared to other practice settings. Students’ choices of
first place of practice appeared to be influenced by both intrinsic and extrinsic job
factors. Our findings did not show major changes in students’ preferences for
practice sites before and after the hospital pre-registration period. This information
is expected to be useful for pharmacy employers.