Selected perceptual determinants of pharmacy students' expected job satisfaction: a pilot study

ObjectivesTo investigate selected perceptual determinants of pharmacy students' expected job satisfaction. Such determinants included: (1) Students' perceptions of the effects of demands upon pharmacists' job satisfaction, (2) students' perceptions of the effects of other health care providers' demands upon pharmacists' job satisfaction, and (3) students' perceived professional image upon pharmacists' job satisfaction.Material and methodsThis research makes use of the personal survey questionnaire method for measuring perceptions of job satisfaction. Subjects for the study were fifth-year professional students in an entry-level Doctor of Pharmacy program class of 192 students. Surveys were returned by 107 students (55.7% of those asked to participate), of which 103 were complete enough to use in the analysis using job satisfaction assessment.ResultsStepwise linear regression within this sample found job satisfaction perceptions of students were best predicted by their beliefs in the encounters they will have with physicians and other health care providers (p = .0016) and by the professional image they perceive the pharmacy profession to have (p = .0015). Patient demands had no statistically significant predictive value in this sample of students' perceptual job satisfaction scores on overall job satisfaction (p = .2496).ConclusionThese results have important implications for human resource managers and administrators of pharmaceutical care delivery systems whose major concerns are to retain as well as recruit sufficient numbers of young job seekers who are pursuing pharmacy as a career.