Japanese Community Pharmacists’ Barriers to Conducting or Participating in Practice Research

Objectives: This study identified barriers to Japanese community pharmacists’ active conduct or participation in practice research. Methods: Community pharmacists (n = 478) who gave presentations at three major pharmacy-related conferences in 2012 and 2013 were questioned about their difficulties of giving presentations, support for better presentations, and barriers to conducting pharmacy practice research in their practical setting. A questionnaire was mailed to and returned by the pharmacists directly. Results: We obtained 230 responses (47.9%). Presentation difficulties included pharmacists’ time constraints and lack of experience organizing the report’s results or discussion. Many thought statistical analysis support was necessary. The barriers were in sufficient time, community pharmacies’ lack of research supervisors, and other community pharmacists’ lack of understanding practice research’s importance. These were comparable to pharmacists’ barriers in other countries, except for money and funds. Conclusions: Japanese community pharmacists should clarify that practice research in their professional roles improves patients’ outcomes. Barriers were similar to pharmacists in other countries. Publication of pharmacists’ practice research results is important to expand their roles. Collaboration between faculties and pharmacists is a challenge for practice research development in the Japanese community setting.