Attempts to Recruit Hospital Pharmacists through Hospital Tours: Questionnaire Survey of Pharmacy Students Interested in Becoming Pharmacy Residents

Abstract

Most pharmacy students are employed in community pharmacies, making their recruitment a major problem for hospitals. In recent years, there has been a demand to improve the clinical practice skills of pharmacists. Consequently, an increasing number of institutions have introduced hospital pharmacy residencies as post-graduate training programs. In this study, we organized a hospital tour for pharmacy students intending to undertake pharmacy residency and evaluated its effectiveness at encouraging recruitment. The tour was scheduled on a Saturday when there were no classes, and it attracted 10 sixth-year pharmacy students from within and outside the prefecture. The results indicated a high level of satisfaction with the visits. In particular, all students said that the discussions with the residency graduates were very meaningful. However, requests for weekday tours were also made. Many participants stated that their motivation to pursue hospital pharmacy residency was to improve their clinical skills. Eight participants (80%) participated in the recruitment examination. These findings suggest that the introduction of a hospital pharmacy residency program and the organization of face-to-face hospital tours may potentially facilitate the recruitment of hospital pharmacists.