Intern pharmacists’ perceived preparedness for practice, their extent of involvement in pharmacy related activities and future career choices in sierra leone: A baseline descriptive survey

Objective: To assess intern pharmacists’ perceived preparedness for practice, document the extent of their involvement in selected pharmacy related activities during the internship period, as well as determine their future career path. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among intern pharmacists using an eight item questionnaire. Simple descriptive statistics were used to calculate frequency counts and percentages with regard to respondent demographics and Likert scale responses. Results: Eighty-five percent of the 20 respondents perceived that they are prepared to perform dispensing and retail, and patient care activities with only half of them in multidisciplinary team care but not pharmaceutical business management (13, 65%). Close to two-thirds of respondents were often involved in patient care (13, 65%). Only six (30%) were often part of a multidisciplinary health care team. Nearly all (18, 90%) want to work in an environment with more patient contact. Conclusion: This study suggests that intern pharmacists in Sierra Leone perceived to a large extent they are prepared for and were involved in most pharmacy related activities considered in this study except for multidisciplinary team care which seems to be limited; although they would prefer to work in a clinical setting in the future.