1 Min In Member News
As pharmacy technicians become more diversified and embedded as healthcare professionals, we are starting to appreciate how important research and evaluation is in improving pharmacy practice and healthcare. – something we read about regularly in pharmacy journals and on social media.
However, research is something that as pharmacy technicians we have never learnt about as part of our qualification and so the thought of it can be quite daunting - it is certainly a vast and complex subject with many different levels and although some pharmacy technicians have already had experience of research, many have not.
As a starting point example, many pharmacy technicians undertake evaluations in the workplace and then submit these as posters to APTUK conference. On the other hand, many pharmacy technicians may have great ideas that never come to fruition as they don’t know where or how to start developing their idea or who to talk to about it.
APTUK are supporting pharmacy technicians to develop their knowledge and skills in research at an introductory level. We have worked jointly with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), to develop the first e-learning modules for both pharmacy technicians and pharmacists to develop knowledge and skills in research from the beginning.
There are nine e-modules which can be accessed via the NIHR e-learning platform and cover a range of topics including:
- What research is
- How to turn ideas into a research project
- Different research methods
- Practical considerations when undertaking research
You will need to set up an account, ideally using a work/professional/university email address from the list of pre-approved domains. If you don’t have one of these email addresses, it may just take a bit longer for your application to be approved.
Each module takes 45 minutes to complete and can be completed as single episodes of learning or as a full set.
Good luck!
