Developing a pattern language to share practical knowledge about pharmacists’ research activities

Abstract

Pharmacists are expected to identify and solve problems while performing their duties, build evidence through problem analysis, publish the results of their research activities, and make presentations at academic conferences. However, only a few clinical pharmacists engage in research activities and share practical knowledge from clinical settings. This study aimed to develop a pattern language for sharing this practical knowledge about research activities. A pattern language is created from verbalized evidence and shared knowledge using specific words obtained through mining interviews. After interviewing research-experienced pharmacists, twenty-nine language patterns across four categories and eight groups emerged. The categories were how to approach research, how to find research themes, how to develop a research environment, and how to interpret research results. The results of the pattern validity evaluation showed that the average percentage of individual patterns judged to be valid was 95.0%. This method appropriately supported verbalizing the pharmacists’ experiences from different work environments and ages into language patterns to encourage more research papers and presentations.