Q&A SESSION WITH THE WINNER OF THE ASTRAZENECA R&D AWARD FOR THE BEST RESEARCH PROJECT 2018
Hieu is currently a fourth year pharmacy student at the University of Nottingham. He is also the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (BPSA) Annual Conference Organiser. He will be organising the 77th BPSA Annual Conference taking place in April 2019.
What was your research project about and what inspired your work on it?
My Research Project is a part of the NHS Project where we looked at community pharmacy services and public perception within community pharmacies at present. It is a broad project exploring different aspects of community pharmacies but I decided to focus on the “health advice” component.
It is a social pharmacy project and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have a keen interest in working with people, which I think is a very fundamental attribute of being a pharmacist. As for why I was inspired to choose this project, the answer is rather simple: the passion for this profession. Over the years I have seen the pharmacy profession growing and expanding, especially for community pharmacies. Community pharmacists are so well trained and they can provide so much more than just supplying medicines. Therefore, I wanted to research whether the public is utilising the services and the health advice community pharmacists are providing and their perception of this.
My findings showed that although the public used pharmacies to collect their prescriptions often, only 5% sought health advice from a community pharmacist. This highlighted a great under-utilisation of pharmacists. Those who used pharmacies for health advice had a higher level of trust in pharmacists and their abilities, compared to those who did not. More work needs to be done to fully understand the barriers that prevent the public from seeking advice from pharmacists. Tackling this misconception will demonstrate the true potential of pharmacists in the community.
The research project is titled “Is community pharmacy being utilised as a source for health advice? A study in Nottingham”
It is a social pharmacy project and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have a keen interest in working with people, which I think is a very fundamental attribute of being a pharmacist. As for why I was inspired to choose this project, the answer is rather simple: the passion for this profession. Over the years I have seen the pharmacy profession growing and expanding, especially for community pharmacies. Community pharmacists are so well trained and they can provide so much more than just supplying medicines. Therefore, I wanted to research whether the public is utilising the services and the health advice community pharmacists are providing and their perception of this.
My findings showed that although the public used pharmacies to collect their prescriptions often, only 5% sought health advice from a community pharmacist. This highlighted a great under-utilisation of pharmacists. Those who used pharmacies for health advice had a higher level of trust in pharmacists and their abilities, compared to those who did not. More work needs to be done to fully understand the barriers that prevent the public from seeking advice from pharmacists. Tackling this misconception will demonstrate the true potential of pharmacists in the community.
What do you believe you did well that in turn helped you win the award?
Being really passionate about the project is the key! I have enjoyed every single thing of the project from planning, conducting survey, reading articles, analysing data to finally writing my dissertation and presenting my poster.
The other thing I would add is that I knew exactly what I was doing and focused on that. I also had a brilliant supervisor who gave me many ideas but also encouraged me to do things independently so I could learn more.
What was the most challenging part of the Research Project for you?
There are always challenges when doing a Research Project. For me, the most difficult part was to know how much information is sufficient and to find the evidence that either supports or opposes my findings.
I gathered data by interviewing the public, it was tricky at times trying to persuade people to answer all the questions I had. I did, however, meet many lovely people that were very willing to do my survey.
What have you learnt from this experience?
Doing a Research Project has equipped me with skills that I will utilise. I may continue with further studies, such as doing a PhD which requires more intensive research! I have learnt how to do things independently, to manage my time, resources and knowledge, to communicate effectively (when interviewing patients/customers and when presenting my poster). It has also helped me understand more of our healthcare system and the strains that exist within different healthcare sectors.
On hindsight is there anything you would do differently?
I would definitely spend more time on literature review by reading more articles. By reading articles it will open up new horizons of knowledge and it will make your points much stronger. To me, it is always exciting to see what others have found as people have different ways of thinking.
What do you think are the positive aspects in receiving an award like this?
Winning the award has definitely been one of the proudest moments of my life. It has reinforced my passion for pharmacy. I am now very dedicated and committed to how the healthcare system can be more effective so that our patients can receive the best quality of care in the shortest time.
I am looking forward to my final year of the MPharm degree and then the pre-registration year. Hopefully in just two years I will be a registered pharmacist with the ability to make an even bigger impact in this wonderful profession.
What would be your most valuable advice to pharmacy students who want to do what you did to produce an award winning Research Project?
Have fun doing your project! Enjoy planning it, managing time and resources, learning new skills and knowledge, collecting data, analysing your results, putting pieces together, writing a draft, getting feedback, consulting your supervisors, and finally producing an art work! As you can see there are many aspects to a Research Project but all you need to do is adopt a step by step approach starting from the smallest thing.
Keep a notebook where you can write down your findings such as a summary of articles that you read or the data you have collected (I wrote down all the experiences I had with interviewing people every day), data analysis (when you work out statistics or draft a graph), your thoughts and ideas, keywords, literally anything relating to your Research Project!
When writing up the lengthy dissertation, my advice is to summarise all your points first and make a structure that you can build on with facts and figures. It will definitely help you focus your arguments and present your work clearly and concisely.
I also advise that you look at different perspectives, talk to your friends and supervisors and you might find out something interesting that you would not think of. Lastly it is important to take breaks and maintain a healthy lifestyle as well. Whenever I was stuck, I took a walk or went to the gym to refresh my brain and new ideas sprung to mind – it works every single time!
Overall, as overwhelming and frightening as the Research Project sounds it was actually a very insightful and enjoyable experience. It has helped me develop, I discovered new skills and knowledge that was outside the scope of lectures and textbooks. Research is not limited to university, I believe pharmacists conduct research every day in their jobs to enhance patient care.
