Pharmacy practice research aims to improve pharmacy services and promote the safe and effective use of medicines. It has a wide scope and includes research into services, medicines use, professional practice and education. This module will give students the opportunity to learn about and apply research skills in the area of pharmacy practice research.

A series of lectures and workshops will introduce topics that are pertinent to conducting research including critical review of published literature, developing a research protocol, research ethics, study design and research methodology. Students will implement the knowledge gained from these sessions and their own private study in order to review the published literature in a particular area and then design a related research skills project, typically a service evaluation. The project topic will be decided according to the needs of the placement site.

After gaining appropriate ethical approval, the students will carry out the data collection at their placement site. In order to support the analysis of their data, students will be given practical sessions on SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). These sessions will cover how to create a database, data management and handling, and basic descriptive and inferential analyses. Students will also be introduced to the principles of qualitative analysis.

In addition to the dissertation and conference poster, students will be required to engage in a dissemination activity as agreed with their supervisors. A workshop on dissemination of research findings will support students in this task. Students will be required to submit evidence of dissemination activities.. Students will also be required to present their findings to peers and tutors in poster format.

Each student will be assigned two supervisors to support this module; one at the placement site (to provide supervision for the clinical aspects of the project) and one based at UCL SOP (to provide academic support). A research diary must be submitted with the dissertation.

MODULE OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the module, students should be able to:


 Describe the principles of audit, service evaluation and research, and similarities and differences.
  Develop aims and objectives for a project to address gaps in the evidence base.
  Apply an understanding of appropriate ethical conduct in audit and research. 
 
 
 Critically evaluate different methods for data collection and analysis, highlighting their benefits and limitations and justifying the chosen methods and study designs. 
 
 
 Apply appropriate analytical approaches for qualitative and/or quantitative data.
  Critically discuss study findings and place them in the context of the literature.
  Develop a plan for disseminating research findings and put this in to practice.