Linked to EAHP Statements

Section 6 - Education and Research: Statement 6.4

ACPE UAN: 0475-0000-22-014-L04-P. A knowledge-based activity.

Abstract

University pharmacy curriculum prepares future pharmacists for pharmacy practice in community and hospital pharmacy. However, most curricula have too little attention for pharmacists' participation in (pharmacy practice) research. Hospital pharmacists should actively engage in and publish research, particularly on hospital pharmacy practice. In this seminar, participants will be able to identify topics to be published and barriers to being published. As an example the policy of the European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy will be discussed to inform how this journal decides on what to publish and what to reject. Furthermore, what kind of papers are published, how are they composed including how the editors are willing to help (young) pharmacists with publications.

Pharmacy practice research will be defined in the arena of research in healthcare; key opportunities and challenges in pharmacy practice research will be addressed. To allow participants to get into action for research, two practical models will be detailed. A 1st example will be the presentation of Academic Pharma, a research section of the LUMC hospital pharmacy to facilitate the design of new medicines. The main goal is to support the development of innovative medicines from the academy and conducting scientific research for that purpose. A few research projects will be discussed.

The 2nd example will present pharmacy practice research conducted at the Pharmacy Dpt. of the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, which is affiliated to the Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences of the University of Leuven. Thanks to this affiliation, relevant pharmacy practice research, predominantly conducted in the domain of clinical pharmacy services but also in other domains, such as compounding is carried out by hospital pharmacists with help and support by Master students. During the past years, the results of many pharmacy practice research projects were translated into scientific, international, peer-reviewed publications. Relevant examples will be discussed to illustrate the trajectory from setting-up and outlining the project up to implementation and publication of the results.

Learning objectives
After the session, participants should be able to:

• Identify reasons to be published and barriers to being published
• Define pharmacy practice research in the arena of research in healthcare, key opportunities and challenges in pharmacy practice research
• Describe the set-up and outline of a research project up to implementation and publication of the results

Educational need addressed
University pharmacy curriculum prepares future pharmacists for pharmacy practice in community and hospital pharmacy but very little for pharmacists' participation in pharmacy practice research. With these presentations, participants will be able to better understand why it’s important to publish and what pharmacy practice research is and how they can put themselves into action to contribute to the evaluation of professional practices.

Keywords: Research, Evaluative research, Knowledge transfer, Pharmacy practice