FACTORS AFFECTING THE CAREER CHOICES OF SENIOR BIOTECHNOLOGY AND PHARMACY STUDENTS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/eddiscourses/2026-2-15Keywords:
career preferences, specialty choice, biotechnology students, qualitative interviewAbstract
The aim of this study was to gain insight into the factors influencing career preferences and career choices at the final stage of education, in addition to the model presented by Blend and his colleagues in 1995 (the ‘Blend model’). A qualitative study was conducted. Semi-structured interviews lasting one hour were conducted with final-year biotechnology students regarding their career preferences and the factors influencing those preferences and choices. The interviews were transcribed, and thematic analysis was used to identify patterns and relationships in the data and to compare and contrast them with the Blend model. Five students majoring in biotechnology and bioengineering and fifty students majoring in pharmacy and industrial pharmacy participated in the study. The interviews revealed three critical sets of factors that were not included in Blend’s model: (a) factors arising from student-initiated information gathering, (b) characteristics of patient groups in a particular specialisation, and (c) characteristics of teams and colleagues within a specialisation. Students actively compare and calibrate their perceptions of the characteristics of different specialisations with their current personal needs and expected future needs, and incorporate insights from their own information gathering about the specialisation. This activity is consistent with Blend’s theory of workplace learning. The interviews emphasised the characteristics of teams and colleagues within the specialty. These three components extend the applicability of Blend’s model, originally developed for primary care careers, to medical specialties in general.
References
Nieuwhof, Marja GH, et al. Students’ conceptions of the medical profession; an interview study. Medical Teacher, 2005, 27.8: 709–714.
Dyrbye, Liselotte N., et al. «Association of clinical specialty with symptoms of burnout and career choice regret among US resident physicians.» Jama 320.11, 2018, 1114–1130.
Goldacre, Michael J.; Laxton, L.; Lambert, T. W. Medical graduates’ early career choices of specialty and their eventual specialty destinations: UK prospective cohort studies. Bmj, 2010, 341.
Borges Nicole J., Gibson, Denise D., Karnani, Rajil M. Job satisfaction of physicians with congruent versus incongruent specialty choice. Evaluation & the Health Professions, 2005. 28.4, 400–413.
Leigh J. Paul, Daniel J. Tancredi, and Richard L. Kravitz. «Physician career satisfaction within specialties.» BMC Health Services Research, 2009, 9.1: 166.
Lepnurm, Rein, et al. «Cornerstones of career satisfaction in medicine.» The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 2006. 51.8, 512–522.
Roos, Marco, et al. «Motivation for career choice and job satisfaction of GP trainees and newly qualified GPs across Europe: a seven countries cross-sectional survey.» Education for Primary Care, 2014. 25.4, 202–210.
Querido, Sophie J., et al. «Dynamics of career choice among students in undergraduate medical courses. A BEME systematic review: BEME Guide No. 33.» Medical teacher, 2016. 38.1, 18–29.
Bland, Carole J., Linda N. Meurer, and George Maldonado. «Determinants of primary care specialty choice: a nonstatistical meta-analysis of the literature.» Academic medicine, 1995. 70.7, 620–41.
Malterud, Kirsti. Qualitative research: standards, challenges, and guidelines. The lancet, 2001. 358.9280, 483–488.
Tavakol Mohsen, Sandars John. Quantitative and qualitative methods in medical education research: AMEE Guide No 90: Part I. Medical teacher, 2014. 36.9, 746–756.
Chen H. Carrie; Teherani, Arianne. Common qualitative methodologies and research designs in health professions education. Academic Medicine, 2016, 91.12: e5.
Creswell John. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. Sage Publications., 2003.
O’brien Bridget C., et al. Standards for reporting qualitative research: a synthesis of recommendations. Academic medicine, 2014. 89.9, 1245–1251.
Billett, Stephen. Subjectivity, self and personal agency in learning through and for work. The SAGE handbook of workplace learning, 2011. 60, 72.
