Abstract

Purpose: To determine students' motivating factors in the choice of pharmacy, career aspirations, and perceptions about learning experiences in the current pharmacy curriculum.

Activity: A descriptive cross-sectional survey of pharmacy students was performed at Kuwait University FINDINGS: The most common reason to pursue pharmacy was that they were not admitted to medicine or dentistry (40.5%). About half of students were seeing themselves employed in hospital pharmacies immediately after graduation. Over two-thirds of respondents 'agreed' or 'strongly agreed' that the pharmacy program developed their problem-solving skills (78.5%) and improved their communication skills (66.4%). Students also admitted that the teaching staff seemed more interested in testing memorization (72.5%), that feedback on student work was usually provided in the form of grades (66.4%), and that the workload is putting a lot of pressure on them (88%).

Summary: The survey identifies key elements that needs to be improved in the next iteration of the program (entry-level PharmD).

Keywords: Kuwait; Pharmacy; curriculum; education; motivation.