The South West Pharmacy Research Network is a new initiative to promote pharmacy research collaboration between pharmacy teams, healthcare organisations and universities across the south west of England.

We’re here for everyone across our region with an interest in pharmacy research, whether your research journey is just about to start or began a long time ago:

• All job roles, such as pharmacy assistants, pharmacy technicians, pharmacists, other health professionals, commissioners, policy makers, researchers and more.
• All levels of experience and seniority, from students to senior leaders.
• All sectors, such as community pharmacy, primary care, community care, hospitals and universities.
• All levels of involvement – whether you want to attend an occasional journal club or join our steering group. We understand that your involvement will need to be flexible and may change over time.
• All levels of interest – from finding out a bit more about research to help build your CV, to carrying out small projects or even doing a PhD.

We aim to increase pharmacy research activity and the engagement of practicing pharmacy staff in research, by acting as a catalyst and linking people, ideas, expertise, institutions and research funding across our region. We will provide a forum to discuss ideas, find collaborators and learn – both for practitioners to learn about research methods, and researchers to learn about current practice. We will achieve these aims in various ways, including our regular online journal club and an annual innovation event, where recent findings, on-going projects, new ideas and good practice will be shared.

We can also assist pharmacy staff with career progression, for example by helping people obtain research experience to discuss at interview and by supporting the research elements of the consultant pharmacist framework, the advanced clinical practitioner framework and the RPS faculty pathway.

It's free to join our network and we're always looking for new members, so please use the details at the bottom of this page it get in touch if you're interested in joining our mailing list to get details of our events.

How we work

We work as a collaborative network of people interested in pharmacy research. Members of our network belong to our mailing list so they can receive our newsletters with details of our events, which are mainly held online. Members also have access to our Microsoft Team space, where they can share ideas and useful resources, as well as asking other members for advice.

We receive no external funding and are independent of the pharmaceutical industry.

Journal club

Journal clubs are a widely used tool to enable clinicians to keep up-to-date with current literature and to develop and maintain their skills in critical appraisal. Our journal club happens online every 8-12 weeks during a lunch hour and is designed to give any interested pharmacy staff the opportunity to engage in the review of a journal article; discussing study findings, application to practice and methodological issues. It is a gentle way to begin or resume interest in research activity and participants can come along to as many of as few meetings as they wish and engage as much or as little as they like. Meetings are usually recorded, and all members have access to previous sets of slides and recordings via Microsoft Teams.

We also welcome members who would like to present a paper related to their own area of clinical or professional experience. This can provide excellent evidence for people building the research element for their advanced practice or consultant portfolio.

During the first year of journal club meetings we discussed a wide variety of topics, such as:

• ASHP national survey of pharmacy practice in hospital settings: Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on pharmacy operations
• Antidepressant medication to prevent depression relapse in primary care: the ANTLER RCT
• Effect of Medication Reconciliation at Hospital Admission on 30-Day Returns to Hospital: A Randomized Clinical Trial
• Skill-mix change and outcomes in primary care: Longitudinal analysis of general practices in England 2015–2019
• Are UK pharmacists ready for consultant-level practice? A cross-sectional survey of self-assessed development needs

Please get in touch using the details at the bottom of this page if you'd like to receive details of journal club meetings.

Annual innovation event

Our steering group are currently working on plans for our first annual innovation event, which will be held in October 2023. This will be a chance to bring members of the network together to share recent findings, on-going projects, new ideas and good practice.

Future plans

We are currently working on plans for a newsletter, webinars on key topics (such as key research methods and finding research funding) and developing our Microsoft Teams site to share ideas and resources.

Steering group

We began as an online journal club, then a small steering group made up of NHS and university staff from across the region and many sectors of pharmacy began work to further develop the network in Autumn 2022. The current members of the steering group are:

• David Bearman - Devon Local Pharmaceutical Council and South West Clinical Research Network
• Ilhem Berrou - UWE and primary care pharmacist
• Victoria DiMartino - Pharmacy Workforce Development South
• Ola Howell - West of England Academic Health Science Network
• Uzo Ibechukwu - Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust
• Matthew Jones - University of Bath
• Sarah Jones - University of Bath
• Chrissie Mills - NHS England - South West
• Anneka Mitchell - University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
• Tim Rendell - Swindon and Wiltshire Local Pharmaceutical Committee and Day Lewis PLC
• Tim Rennie - University of Bath
• Jenny Scott - University of Bristol
• Anthony Sinclair- Livewell Southwest
• Ellen Williams - Pharmacy Workforce Development South

We are actively recruiting new members for the steering group and are particularly keen to find GP pharmacy and primary care pharmacy representatives. Please use the details at the bottom of this page to get in touch if you are interested in joining the steering group.