Factors influencing the selection of rural practice locations for early career pharmacists in Victoria

OBJECTIVE: To identify factors influencing the choice of practice location for early career pharmacists working and living in Victoria. DESIGN: Survey. SETTING: Victorian pharmacies. PARTICIPANTS: Pharmacists living in Victoria in April 2009, who had registered with the Pharmacy Board of Victoria after 1 October 2004, stratified into major city and rural areas. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Questionnaire responses analysed via descriptive statistics, chi-square and direct logistic regression. RESULTS: Early career pharmacists were more likely to practice in a rural location if they had undertaken a rural internship, had a spouse or partner with a non-metropolitan background and were not practicing in a hospital pharmacy. Pharmacists who had lived in a rural area during their childhood and had studied pharmacy at a rural university were four times more likely to have undertaken a rural internship than those that studied at a major city university. CONCLUSIONS: The strongest indicator for future practice location was a pharmacist's internship location. Childhood location and pharmacy education location were indicators of internship location. Pharmacists with a rural childhood location, especially those who study at rural universities, are more likely to work in rural areas.