Research Interests of Pharmacists in a Community Based Practice Based Research Network

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Describe the characteristics and research interests of Community Health Centers (CHC) pharmacists and pharmacies in a pharmacy based practice based research network (PBRN). METHODS: Pharmacy directors of eight Arizona CHC pharmacies were initially contacted by telephone and asked to participate in a survey. The survey was then sent to these directors via email and a second telephone conversation was set up to re-­‐administer the survey and gather the answers to the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of demographic, clinical and practice related questions targeted at identifying areas of interest for research in developing a community pharmacy practice based research network (PBRN). RESULTS: The data regarding the demographics and characteristics of the Arizona CHC pharmacies, pharmacists, and patients showed that only two pharmacies served more than 300 patients per day and dispensed more than 400 prescriptions per day. The data found that an average of 46% of the patients that went to these pharmacies did not consider English as their primary language and that an average of 49% of the patients were Hispanic/Latino. The data collected regarding the clinical interests of these pharmacies showed that asthma had the highest level of clinical interest among the eight CHC pharmacies (average rank = 3.1). For the public health interests of the CHC pharmacies, patient adherence/compliance was ranked the most important (average rank = 3.1). In regards to internal practice site interests job satisfaction was the most highly ranked interests among these CHC pharmacies (average rank = 3.1). CONCLUSIONS: The data suggests asthma, job satisfaction and patient compliance/adherence are the top areas of interest in the clinical, internal worksite, and public health sectors. The data collected from this study will help to establish a pharmacy based PBRN in Arizona and provide a starting point in terms of research topics that will be explored. The establishment of an Arizona pharmacy based PBRN is very important since it will provide cohesiveness between research and community based practice of Community Health Centers in Arizona and is a step in the right direction in terms of growth of these centers.