Attitude, perception, willingness, motivation and barriers to practice-based research: A cross-sectional survey of hospital pharmacists in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Practice-based research (PBR) is of pivotal importance for hospital pharmacists which not only up-grades the profession but also improves the patient care. This study aimed to evaluate the attitude, perception, willingness, motivation and barriers to PBR among hospital pharmacists in Pakistan. METHODS: A descriptive, cross sectional study design was employed. Data were collected between 1(st) December, 2017 and 1(st) March, 2018 from 130 hospital pharmacists employed in 41 hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan. A survey instrument comprising of six sections was designed to determine the attitude, perception, willingness, motivation and barriers to PBR. Data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 21.0, Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). The normality of the data was determined through Shapiro-Wilks and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests. Independent Samples Mann-Whitney U Test and Independent Samples Kruskal-Wallis Test were carried out to test if there were differences among the characteristics of the hospital pharmacists. Logistic regression analysis was used to figure out the factors associated with attitude, perceptions, willingness and motivation towards PBR. A p-value <0.05 was used for statistical significance of differences. RESULTS: A total of 141 pharmacists were approached. Among them, 130 responded to the survey (response rate 92%). Out of a maximum score i.e., 5 (100%) the respondents obtained a median score of 4 (IQR = 0) for attitude, perception and motivation towards PBR; whereas, a median score of 4 (IQR = 1) was obtained for willingness thus demonstrating fair positive attitude, good perceptions, increased motivation and willingness towards PBR. The most common barrier limiting the pharmacists’ participation in PBR was lack of time (23.8%) followed by lack of incentives (16.2%) and lack of support (14.6%). Results of the logistic regression analysis revealed that hospital pharmacists practicing in the inpatient settings had 4.56 times more positive attitude towards PBR (OR = 4.56, 95%CI = 1.07─19.42, p-value = 0.040) as compared to those practicing in the outpatient settings. The male hospital pharmacists (OR = 8.86, 95%CI = 1.15–53.74, p-value = 0.017), those practicing in the outpatient (OR = 23.51, 95%CI = 2.04─271.53, p-value = 0.011) and inpatient settings had increased motivation towards PBR (OR = 12.24, 95%CI = 1.61─94.66, p-value = 0.016). CONCLUSION: Despite the presence of several barriers, the respondents had fair positive attitude, good perceptions, increased motivation and willingness towards PBR which is a promising finding.