2021 Volume 5 Article ID: 2020-070
The ethical consideration of research subjects is essential when conducting clinical research, making research ethics education for current pharmacists an urgent issue. The purpose of this study was to evaluate community pharmacists’ knowledge of clinical research and research ethics and understand how to motivate them to learn. An online questionnaire survey was conducted for this purpose. The main survey items inquired about the pharmacists’ understanding of related terms, whether they had or wished to have educational opportunities, and about their motivation for clinical research and learning. The results revealed that current community pharmacists were not familiar with clinical research methods and had few opportunities to receive research ethics education. Although many of them expressed needs for research ethics education, there was a prevalence to be motivated to engage in passive forms of learning, with tendencies to desire “new knowledge learning” rather than seeking “challenges with no correct answer.” An educational program that could inform pharmacists of the importance of disseminating the practice of research on clinical issues, and that could show them that learning about research ethics leads to patient protection, is necessary to improve their motivation to learn about research ethics.
