MIXED METHODOLOGY APPROACH IN PHARMACY PRACTICE RESEARCH

Healthcare providers play a major role in attending to all domains of health in a population. In terms of modem healthcare delivery, better health outcomes for population can be achieved by engaging multi-disciplinary expertise. In the last decade, pharmacy profession had transformed tremendously in terms of health and pharmaceutical service provision to both patients and general population. Within this practice transformation, pharmacists, especially those in developed countries, now occupy a respectable position within the healthcare system. In contrast, services and expertise offered by pharmacists in developing countries are still underutilized, and their role as healthcare professionals is not deemed to be important either by the community or by other healthcare providers, especially doctors and nurses. In order to explore the current perspectives regarding the role of pharmacists in the context of a developing country, a systematic research is needed. Mixed methodology research should be used for evidence generation. The philosophy of mixed method research came up decades ago. This approach is widely recommended for social and human sciences research. In recent existence, many researchers have begun to recommend mixed methods research as a separate methodology or design. Many factors have brought into the evolution of mixed methods research. A combination of both forms of data can provide the most complete analysis of the issues related to the pharmacy practice research. Numbers in quantitative and words in qualitative can be enclosed together to give the better understanding of research questions. Both forms of data are necessary for pharmacy practice research especially in case of developing countries where there is a need to generate the evidence for future health policy.