Report recommends ways to nurture innovation in community pharmacy
A new report, based on research commissioned by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's practice research division, examines the nature and process of innovation in community pharmacy and its impact on the development of new services.
The report makes a number of recommendations on how pharmacy can nurture
innovation and its dissemination. In particular, it notes that the “movers
and shakers” of community pharmacy are potentially a critical resource
that could be developed and used more effectively.
“Understanding innovation in community pharmacy”, written by Professor
Jennifer Tann of Birmingham University and Professor Alison Blenkinsopp of Keele
University, was launched on 20 November at the pharmacy development group conference
organised by the Society. An interim report was published in May (PJ, 10 May,
p664) and the final report incorporates additional research describing leading-edge
practitioners in community pharmacy and their influence in facilitating the adoption
of service innovations.
The research is part of a strategy approved by the Society’s Council in
2001 to help understand the pharmacy workforce in greater detail. The study aimed
to gather empirical evidence of innovations and their dissemination, innovators
as initiators and agents of change in community pharmacy, and also the innovation
process itself.
Professor Blenkinsopp said: “In order to deliver new services in pharmacy
and achieve wider take-up of existing new roles we need to ensure that we have
the right people in the right place with the right skills. We need to understand
how innovation happens and how it is then widely implemented. To achieve this
we need to know what makes some pharmacists innovative and to learn how we can
support them to facilitate the wider spread of innovations.
“
This is the first UK study of innovation in the community pharmacy setting and
has deepened understanding of the characteristics of innovators, the innovation
process and the innovations themselves. We believe the report provides pointers
to those who wish to support innovative practice and facilitate its more rapid
roll-out and diffusion across the profession.”
The Society’s Director of Practice and Quality Improvement, David Pruce,
said: “The next few years will see major changes to community pharmacy.
This research will inform the Society, and others, on how to get innovation into
practice and could not have come at a better time for pharmacy. We will be taking
the findings of the report and incorporating them into our work on professional
leadership and development.”
Copies of “Understanding innovation in community pharmacy” are available
at £20 a copy from the Practice Research Division, Royal Pharmaceutical
Society, 1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN (tel 020 7572 2278; e-mail practiceresearch@rpsgb.org.uk).
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