Background: Identification of the current employment status provides useful information for policy makers and decision makers of the education system in order to plan for determining the admission capacity of students, the conditions of graduate’s recruitment, and the employment condition of various fields. The aim of this study was determining the career destiny of healthcare management major from the perspective of graduates.
Methods: This descriptive-analytic and cross-sectional study was conducted in the second half of 2018 on 108 graduates of healthcare management at Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd. Participants entered the study by census method and the data collection tool included a standard career destiny questionnaire. Statistical analyses were performed by SPSS ₁₆ using descriptive (Frequency, Mean, Standard deviation, Percentage) and analytical (independent t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient test) statistics.
Results: The mean score of career destiny in the present study was 3.04 ± 0.65. Of career destiny constructs, the highest and the lowest average scores were related to the specialized and professional abilities (3.69 ± 0.65 (and creating the necessary facilities for employment by the university (2.59 ± 0.63), respectively. A statistically significant relationship was found between the following dimensions: specialized and professional abilities with marital status (P = 0.046), creating the necessary facilities for employment by the university (P = 0.031), appropriateness of the curriculum and professors education with employment (P = 0.047), role of university environment and entrepreneurship skills (P = 0.034) with the variable of age, and appropriateness of the curriculum and professors education with the participants’ employment and grade point average (GPA) (P = 0.029).
Conclusion: It is suggested to provide employment opportunities for graduates in the field of healthcare management at different levels of the health system, educational objectives, curriculum content, clerkship, and internship courses. Furthermore, the curriculum of this field of study should be revised based on the country's labor market needs and the educational centers should play a more prominent role in introducing their graduates’ capabilities to the health labor market.
Key words: Career destiny, Healthcare management, Graduates