Intentions of and Barriers to Carrying Out Medical Research among Clinical Pharmacy Students: A Cross-sectional Study in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia

AIMS: This study was aimed at exploring the intentions of clinical pharmacy students to be involved in clinical research, and to identify the perceived and existing barriers to conducting research activities in the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted between February and March 2019, in the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia, using clinical pharmacy students at the two universities that offer a pharmacy program there (King Faisal University and Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University). An electronic questionnaire tool was adapted to explore the intentions of and barriers to carry out medical research among the students. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics are presented as frequencies and percentages. A χ(2) test was used to explore any statistically significant difference between the student demographics and the intentions and barriers regarding medical research. P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Only 35.1% (n = 33) of the participating clinical pharmacy students had previous research experience. Of these, the majority encountered barriers to medical research (81.8%, n = 27). The most commonly reported barriers were a lack of funding, a lack of support from the college for research activities, and difficulties in coordination between the research team. Around 36.2% (n = 34) of the participants were currently involved in research activities, with a majority of them (67.6%, n = 23) spending an average of 5 h or less per week for research. CONCLUSION: Our study highlights that the intention among clinical pharmacy students to carry out medical research was poor. Educational institutions are advised to provide more financial and logistic support to their medical researchers.