How‐to guide for overcoming barriers of research and scholarship training in Pharm.D. and pharmacy residency programs

Abstract

Accrediting bodies for Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) and postgraduate residency training programs recognize the importance of research and scholarship training. However, specific guidance on how research and scholarship fundamentals should be delivered to trainees has not been provided. As a result, competing priorities often create barriers for trainees to develop research and scholarship skills and limit the trainees' ability to conduct and participate in high‐quality, meaningful research experiences. The purpose of this “how‐to” guide is to assist pharmacy school faculty and pharmacy residency program directors with strategies to overcome programmatic, trainee, and project barriers to providing a high‐quality training experience in research and scholarship. Programmatic topics addressed include institutional support and program oversight, expertise and number of research mentors, incentives for mentor engagement, and competing priorities that diminish time for research activities. Trainee topics include lack of trainee interest in the assigned project, trainee departure prior to project completion, lack of knowledge of the publication process, and time constraints to work on the project. Project topics addressed include time needed to initiate a project, training on methodology relevant to a project, selection of projects that lack rigor, depth, or feasibility, and resource constraints to disseminate project results. A summary of specific recommended actions is provided to effectively overcome these common barriers encountered in research and scholarship training programs.

Pharmacy resident research programming at a community health system: Challenges, quality improvement, and outcomes

“…Valuable reviews and recommendations for overcoming barriers to research and scholarship training in PharmD and pharmacy residency programs have recently been published 4‐7 . We endorse these well‐described frameworks and further underscore the challenges to implementing robust resident research programming at community health systems, which currently provide approximately 30.6% of PGY1 pharmacy residency programs nationwide 8 .…”

“…In 2021, Morbitzer and colleagues offered 12 evidence‐based recommendations to pharmacy residency programs in order to provide “high‐quality and feasible research and scholarship training that promotes trainee skill development, advancement of impactful research projects, and presentation and publication opportunities for trainees.” 7 We validate these guidelines as essential to our current residency programs' success and integrated each of them during the development of our rotations and educational programming. Our research educational curriculum also covers all learning topic priorities identified in a prior needs assessment conducted by Bulkley and colleagues 22 .…”

“…Pharmacy residency programs nationwide have struggled to provide effective research and scholarship learning experiences, fueling the chasm between the expectations placed upon early‐career clinical pharmacists and the skills provided by their training 5,7,12,14,21,22 . While the benefits of research training in pharmacy residency extend far beyond those of publication, the poor publication rates of pharmacy resident research projects have likely come at the costs of reduced knowledge dissemination and stunted early‐career scholarly productivity 2,3 .…”

“…This perpetuates the gap between the research skills desired of entry‐level clinical pharmacists and those afforded during pharmacist training 5 . Specific recommendations and definitions for pharmacy research education from graduate and postgraduate accrediting bodies are still lacking, and challenges to successful resident research programming abound 2,4‐7 …”

“…We endorse these well‐described frameworks and further underscore the challenges to implementing robust resident research programming at community health systems, which currently provide approximately 30.6% of PGY1 pharmacy residency programs nationwide 8 . While successful pharmacy resident research programs have emerged at academic medical centers and/or when led by college faculty, evaluations of such programs appear lacking from nonacademic hospital settings 5,7,9‐11 . Indeed, it has been recommended that community hospital programs consider partnering with academic medical centers to provide similar learning experiences 2 .…”