Factors Associated With Intention to Pursue Pharmacy Residency: The Undecided Student Issue

Abstract Purpose With over 14,000 pharmacy graduates in 2019 in the United States, the pharmacy job market may be steadily becoming saturated. As part of the quality indicators, many Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) programs report and encourage their graduates to pursue residencies. However, there is a portion of the pharmacy students that are undecided about residencies. The purpose of this study was to learn about contributing factors that leads students to being undecided regarding considering residency programs. Method This was a survey-based study of year two and three pharmacy students from five Colleges of Pharmacy in the United States, conducted retrospectively. This study compared students’ past behaviors, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control between students who were undecided and those with an Intent to Pursue (ITP) residency. Results A total of 287 students responded to the survey (response rate = 24.78%). Students that had not attended Midyear/residency showcase were more likely to be undecided about residencies than those that did (91.67% vs 62.50%). In addition, undecided students were less likely to agree that the people who were important to them believed that they should pursue residency compared to ITP group (4.36 vs. 5.72, on a 7-point Likert score). Lastly, those who perceived large student loans or family obligations as barriers were more likely to be undecided (OR 1.761 and 1.560, respectively). Discussion Focusing on undecided students and addressing these major contributing factors as part of the career advising/preparation may result in shifting these students’ intention to pursue residency.