Table 4 Summary and quote examples of themes regarding “research engagement actions”

Access research

Prioritized easily accessible research

“…most of them are peer-reviewed journals. Some of them are not but they still published whatever somebody else found out some place else or, you know, the American Pharmacists Association has research and papers presented at their annual meetings”

“I think with every policy we scan the nation to see who was doing what and… I would say that we did look out to see who else was prescribing naloxone.”

“…the demographics of [our state], the department of health publishes the demographics on the overdose death rate, what the products are, and that sort of thing, so we used their research.”

“…there was also just—there were some articles, I don’t know that I read the study, but they’re articles about how…there were more people using contraception [in another state] after their legislation had been enacted and implemented.”

Appraise research

Evaluated relevance and significance of research evidence

“We were very deliberate in talking through… primary differences between the California model and New Mexico’s model and our model… California only allows prescriptive authority for the nicotine replacement therapy products. They’ve got all five, they include the over-the-counter products as well as the prescription inhaler nasal spray. But there was quite a bit of back and forth, especially with the physicians on the group. Are there are their concerns and even though black box warnings, the black box warning that removed…. And that was something where we have these very engaged discussions, and it kind of came out that, you know, these products when use is recommended are FDA [Food and Drug Administration]-approved and they’re generally safe. And so we wanted to include all seven.”

Interact with researchers

Interacted with research-knowledgeable individuals

“…about 30 stakeholder groups, local health departments, health insurers, pharmacists, pharmacies…”

“We did have the expert [from the department of health] with us, and she utilizes those statistics to, you know, kind of back up the evidence that we had cited.”

Individual and organizational opinion were valued equally

“The nurses association, the pharmacist, you know, so we had a lot of positive testimony… their organization supported this and they support it because… they thought it was the right thing to do based on the scientific evidence.”

Generate new research

Not often utilized to engage with research evidence

“So we did a statewide survey that basically looked at…if this legislation was passed, you know, essentially what, what direction [will] we go into the protocols that were selected… through the statewide survey…. So we had physicians, physician assistants…respond to this… and then we did have non-clinicians answer so, you know, essentially health plan or payer staff, public health staff, and that sort of thing and kind of get a broad cross section.”