The greater role of community pharmacy has been continuously recognised to be vital to the operation of the National Health Service (NHS). The current role pharmacy plays needs to be significantly improved and amplified to conform to the ever changing healthcare environment and this can be achieved through practice research. Successful change

management is required to ensure community pharmacists’ (CPs) engagement in practice research is facilitated to directly improve patient outcomes, better pharmacy practice, expand the pharmacy profession and demonstrate pharmacy’s integral role within the recent NHS reforms.1 This cross-sectional study aimed to determine what CPs thought was meant by practice research and their current level of engagement, if any, in practice research. A structured click here questionnaire (piloted and

amended accordingly), was posted for self-completion with follow up telephone interviews. The surveyed CPs were randomly selected from five random Primary Care Trust (PCT) areas in different geographical locations across England: Bedfordshire, Cornwall & Isles of Scilly, Richmond & Twickenham, Wakefield and Warwickshire. For the first phase of the study, the structured questionnaire allowed CPs to convey their responses by way of close ended questions (including Likert scales and multiple choice questions) and some open ended questions. The telephone interviews were used to further explore CPs’ attitudes and reasoning towards practice research. Data from the postal questionnaires Ruxolitinib were entered and analysed using statistical software and telephones interviews were analysed using thematic and coding analysis.2 The study was approved by the Kingston University Ethics Committee. Following the data collection period, a total

of 53 postal questionnaires out of 323 were returned aminophylline (response rate of 16.4%). 49% (26/53) of CPs claimed that they had engaged in some form of research in the past where 50% of this cohort (13/26) considered audits to be a form of research activity. Of those that had not engaged in research in the past, 51.9% (14/27) of CPs were interested in engaging in research in the future. Overall, 67.9% (36/53) of CPs wished to engage in research in the future, of which 55.5% (20/36) expressed that they required training to facilitate their engagement. 12 CPs from the surveyed population were interviewed. Thematic analysis revealed the following themes; research reflecting on day-to-day practice, community pharmacy as an appropriate setting for research, improving health outcomes and achieving benefits as a driver for engagement, sharing best practice, time pressures and busy schedules and lack of management support and training. Suggestions were made as to how CPs could be encouraged to engage in practice research, which included better communication, support and training and change management.