Determinants of the choice of provisionally registered pharmacist (PRP) training in Malaysia: a qualitative insight

In Malaysia, due to provisional registered pharmacist (PRP) training places in government hospitals being oversubscribed, pharmacy graduates wait for about a year before starting their training. Therefore, a policy was implemented to allow pharmacy graduates to select their preferred areas of PRP training. This study was conducted to explore the perception and preferences of final year pharmacy students on the current PRP training system.

This qualitative interview study was conducted among final year pharmacy students. Participants were recruited using convenience sampling until data saturation (i.e., when additional interviews didn't lead to any new themes). All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and evaluated by thematic analysis.

Twenty-two final year pharmacy students were interviewed. Fifteen of them preferred the government sector as their choice training, three chose the community sector, two preferred private hospitals and another two preferred the pharmaceutical industry. The majority of the students gave positive feedback towards the liberalization of PRP training sites. Most of them chose clinical pharmacy as their preferred training site despite knowing of the saturation issue in government hospitals. This was mainly due to the opportunity to gain clinical experience and knowledge from the government sector. A small number of students preferred the pharmaceutical industry based on their personal interests and opportunities for career advancement.

Pharmacy students generally chose their PRP training site based on personal interest, future career advancement and working environment. A better understanding of career pathways and opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry by the students is required.