Participants were very satisfied with their symptomatic improvement and with the service in general, albeit for a small number of conditions. Participants reported getting better, and side effects were not a concern. These results are encouraging for pharmacists; however, a comparison of physician care with pharmacist care and unsupported self-care is required to truly know the benefit of pharmacist prescribing.

We designed this project to determine community pharmacists' opinions regarding the challenges and motivations of their recent participation in a pharmacy practice-based research study At the conclusion of a randomized, multicenter study, 87 community pharmacist-investigators were sent a questionnaire that explored four areas: motivating factors to participate, barriers to participation, communication tools used by study coordinators, and design issues for future studies. Fifty-eight (67%) completed questionnaires were returned. Key factors motivating participation in the study were desire to improve the profession and opportunity to learn. Time was the greatest barrier to participation. Pharmacy practice-based research has two distinct advantages. First, it translates clinical knowledge into direct application in the community. Second, it provides needed data to demonstrate the value of enhanced pharmacy practice. Thorough understanding of pharmacists' opinions is necessary to optimize the design of future studies.

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