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Zoe Smeaton reports.

Spending your days rushed off your feet in the dispensary dealing with patients' every demand? It may feel like pharmacy research and the world of academia are a million miles away. But they might not be quite as distant as you think, and getting to know more could be a smart move for your career.

Pharmacy practice research encompasses all systematic, objective investigations that look to explore the ways pharmacy is practised. It could be anything from how effective MURs are proving to why dispensing errors are happening and how they can be stopped. As Beth Allen, acting director of the Pharmacy Practice Research Trust, says: "Research is about real issues that affect pharmacists and the patients they see every day."

This means that getting involved in research could be as simple as just doing a part of your job and making sure you record what happens or fill out a questionnaire afterwards. Mike Holden, chief officer at Hampshire & Isle of Wight LPC, helped work on a study in which pharmacists targeted MURs to asthma patients, showing they could reduce emergency asthma hospital admissions in the process. He says the pharmacists' role was simply doing their MURs correctly and ensuring they recorded the data. "It's an observational role, gathering evidence," he says.

Ms Allen says as well as collecting data as directed by project leaders, you could be involved in identifying specific service issues that affect you and how they could be investigated, finding out about local needs and how they could be met, or working with health trusts to evaluate the effectiveness of new services.

Getting involved in any of these things would be great news for your career: by showing that you have an interest in and enthusiasm to improve the ways pharmacists work, you're showing potential employers a pro-active, positive attitude to your work. By focusing on an aspect of practice and how it works best, you'll also probably be improving your skills in that area, which is another attractive prospect.

As Ms Allen says: "Taking part in research can provide a mechanism for professional development, for example, a special interest." And whatever you do you're likely to be honing your brain power, as David Taylor of the School of Pharmacy, University of London, says: "Everyone should get involved in research for their own intellectual satisfaction."

Small studies can also have a big impact locally, which could be more good news for your employer and so for you. For example, if research shows that a new pharmacy service has had a positive impact on patients, local pharmacists can use it as evidence to negotiate for the service to be rolled out more widely, or continued for longer.

Strengthening the evidence base for services is great for the profession as a whole, Ms Allen adds. "It ensures the profession is forward-looking and empowered to take advantage of opportunities when they arise, and it raises the profile of pharmacy as an essential and fully-integrated member of the healthcare team," she says. Knowing you're contributing to the development of the profession in this way is likely to boost your job satisfaction, which is good for both you and your employer, too.

And if that's not enough to convince you, taking part in research could be a smart move for your CV and longer term career prospects. Taking part in a study could bring you into contact with all sorts of new people in the profession, from pharmacists or PCT workers to top academic researchers or LPC officials. Getting to know these people will also expand your professional network, which might just land you your next job, as well as giving you new people to learn from and improve your practice.

Ms Allen stresses that employers must be willing to recognise and support research and development as part of a pharmacist's role too, so if you do want to get involved in research, you're likely to get your boss's approval.

With so many sources of help available getting started shouldn't be too difficult. So why not give research a go and you could well find you give your career a very welcome boost.