There are many benefits of becoming more research active and aware, including the following:

Professional level
• Improves patient care
• Generates evidence that can be used to influence practice, education and policy.

Community pharmacy level
• Enhances collaboration
• Could provide competitive advantage.

Personal level
• Enhances knowledge and skills
• Promotes reflection
• Enhances collaboration with others
• Is professionally satisfying.

How to get involved

Community pharmacists typically need to be all things to all people during their ‘day job’. The same does not apply to research.

You do not need to know everything about the process before getting involved. Your level of understanding should be proportionate to the research-related activities with which you are involved or are likely to be involved.

The case studies in this module illustrate how three community pharmacists became involved with research.

Tackling barriers to research involvement

A recent study of the barriers and facilitators to primary care teams being involved in research was published by Dr Zoe Edwards and colleagues.

The main barrier was staff perception that they were unable to fit anything else into an already packed workload. Meanwhile, the main facilitator was clear anticipated patient benefit from the research.

The authors made recommendations for future research that are highly relevant to community pharmacy:

• Always pilot test research activities in different types and sizes of pharmacies, and include pharmacists and teams with little or no research experience. This will generate realistic estimates of the time needed to participate in the research as well as all the relevant practicalities

• Research studies should be designed with relevant partners to ensure efficiency and appropriateness. Ideally, community pharmacy team members should be involved at an early stage of planning and should include a range of pharmacies to ensure that different working practices and arrangements are accommodated

• Succinct statements about how research will benefit patients should be communicated from the outset – specifically, “what potential direct benefit will there be?”

• Communication should state that the research has gone through a rigorous ethics process and that data will be kept secure

• Findings should routinely be fed back to research sites as well as updates of study developments and progress against targets (e.g. recruitment rates).

Research teams are usually very willing and happy to discuss practical details with potential participant study sites such as community pharmacies.

Email or phone the contact person from the participant information leaflet, tell them you might consider taking part, and ask them to talk you through how they support new participant pharmacists or pharmacies.

Ask about a realistic timeline for the study and what monies will be paid to participants, as well as any other questions you have.