Process philosophy: Organizing mentalities for glimpsing pharmacy practice 'in flight'.

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Practice Research
• Social Pharmacy
• Organization and Management Science

Background:

• Increasing demand for innovative research methods in pharmacy practice.
• Existing research methods may not fully capture practitioners' lived experiences.
• Need for alternative frameworks to enhance the relevance of pharmacy research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose process philosophy and practical rationality as novel research frameworks for pharmacy and social pharmacy.
• To explore how these approaches can lead to more relevant and insightful research outcomes.
• To encourage a shift towards 'thinking differently' in research design and execution.

Main Methods:

• Leaning on theoretical advances in Organization and Management Science (OMS).
• Highlighting the perspective of 'practical rationality' derived from process philosophy.
• Suggesting the "prior organization of mentalities and modes of thought" for practically rational findings.

Main Results:

• Process philosophy offers a unified perspective of reality and lived experience.
• Congruent methodologies can align research with practitioners' actual experiences.
• Outcomes provide a complex 'system of picturing' phenomena beyond reductionist approaches.

Conclusions:

• Process philosophy provides a complementary, alternative framework for pharmacy practice research.
• This perspective can reveal interrelating processes and practices, offering new intervention opportunities.
• Research can 'catch reality in flight,' yielding novel explanatory forms and insights.