WHAT MOTIVATES POLISH COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS TO PURSUIT OF POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION?

Due to increasing importance of the advisory role for physicians and patients played by the pharmacist over the last decade, it seems appropriate to evaluate if and why pharmacists are interested in postgraduate medical education. The purpose of the study was to develop and validate an instrument to assess such motives. with special interest to Polish community pharmacists. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by a sample of participants of community pharmacist specialization programs and it was analyzed in relation to participants of other postgraduate courses. They were asked to rank their motives on a Likert-like scale and the underlying dimensions for study motives were identified using exploratory and confirmatory techniques. The reasons for taking specialization for community pharmacists were similar as compared to participants of other postgraduate studies. However, the autotelic factor was not so strong and the crucial reason was that such postgraduate training was required to be promoted in work. Basing on Polish results. we propose the division of motives into three groups autotelic. instrumental and coincidental. The validated self-administered questionnaire based on this division displayed acceptable construct validity and internal consistency, and therefore can he proposed as an example tool to assess the particular motives and expectations of potential postgraduate students and employees in the pharmaceutical job market. The promotion of postgraduate education among pharmacists can improve the quality of pharmaceutical service.