Introduction

Achieving evidence-based practice is the aim of the modern health care system. In order to achieve evidence-based practice in pharmacy, we require good quality, rigorous evidence of the effectiveness of the pharmacist's role. In order to support this evidence-based culture the Mant Report suggests that 100% of practitioners should be research aware, 10% research active and 1% research experts¹: this should ensure that research findings are relevant and easily integrated into current practice. However, the available literature suggests that there are many barriers to undertaking research in practice, which have yet to be overcome^2-3. The aim of this study was to explore perspectives of pharmacists to undertaking research in practice and the barriers that exist.

Methods

Various methods were used to explore the perspectives of pharmacists and pharmacy managers of research in practice and barriers before and after their involvement in a research project. Pre-intervention, one-to-one semi-structured interviews with the pharmacists and senior managers were undertaken to explore their perspectives of new roles for pharmacists at the health care interface and their involvement in a research project to evaluate such developments, as well as any perceived barriers. These were followed up by post-intervention one-to-one interviews with senior management and a focus group with the team of pharmacists who had delivered the intervention. The data collected both pre and post-intervention was triangulated with data from the literature around barriers to research in practice to enhance the validity of the findings.

Results

Table 1 summarises the barriers identified by all interviewees. Two main barriers were identified in all interviews before and after the research project. These were "motivation" and the pharmacists' attitudes to research. Other important barriers were "time", "resources" and "local systems". Upon further analysis, two categories emerge: cultural and professional barriers and practical and financial barriers. The results will be presented in more detail at the conference.

Table 1: Barriers to research in practice identified from a variety of sources

Discussion

The identification of two main barriers to undertaking research in practice in this sample is important as it suggests that although the commonly cited barriers of time and resources many be practically addressed in individual work environments, the cultural barriers may still be a problem. Such issues need to be addressed profession-wide to provide recommendations around how to better integrate research into practice locally.

References

1. Mant D. National working group on R&D in Primary Care: final report. London NHS Executive, 1997.

2. Liddell H. Attitudes of community pharmacists regarding involvement in research. Pharm J 1996;56:905-7.

3. Rosenbloom K, Taylor K, Harding G. Community pharmacists' attitudes towards research. Int J Pharm Pract 2000:;8:103-10.