RESUMO
Purpose: Employers place emphasis on graduates' work experience and interpersonal skills while academia mainly focuses on developing students' learning ability. One proposed strategy is through career guidance by universities; however, supportive evidence is lacking. This study explored the career readiness of pharmacy students for the Saudi job market. It also examined the availability of career guidance services for pharmacy students and alumni in Saudi Arabia and the impact of such services on recipients' career path choices and development of competencies. Subjects and Methods: This cross-sectional study utilized an online-based survey. Pharmacy students in the last three years of their program and recent graduates participated in the survey. The study used descriptive statistics to describe participants' demographic data. Respondents were asked to rate aspects related to career readiness on a 5-point Likert scale, and their responses were reported as frequencies with percentages or means as appropriate. Comparisons between groups were made using t-test or one- way ANOVA as required. Results: A total of 576 responses were collected. About 25% of participants acknowledged the career guidance services provided at their pharmacy college, whereas the majority indicated that they have never reached out to a career counselor at their university (89.6%). The highest level of disagreement was noticed in impact of career guidance services on participants' establishment of their CV/portfolio (50.7%). Using the work readiness scale, the lowest mean was seen in the social intelligence domain (3.64 ± 0.94). Conclusion: Although substantial proportion of students reported the presence of career guidance services in their university or college, very few stated that they had utilized such services. This could have impacted the students' career readiness for the rapidly changing Saudi job market. Therefore, proper measures to advertise the availability of career guidance services in Saudi pharmacy schools have to be implemented.
RESUMO
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a newly discovered RNA virus that belongs to corona virus group. It leads to an infectious state manifested as fever, loss of smell and taste sensations, cough, myalgia, fatigue and headache. The condition may become more serious as difficulty in breathing, chest pain and even death. Until successful vaccine is developed, complimentary and herbal medicine can be used as alternative prevention measure against COVID-19 in high-risk populations. This is because the none of the traditional agents used in the treatment protocols had proven effective results. In addition, recent studies reported that dietary supplements and herbal agents may have effective antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that may contribute efficiently to amelioration of the effects of COVID-19. This review sheds light on the possible role of the natural agents in the management of COVID-19 with reference to the role of the primary care in this issue.
