Patient's health interests are the most important factor to consider in ethical decision making

Sep 24 2010

The majority of pharmacists across the profession who were involved in a UK study reported the patient's health interests as the most important factor to consider in ethical decision making.  They also indicated that regulation seems to play a very important part in moral decision making.

A research report published by the Pharmacy Practice Research Trust (PPRT) provides evidence that ethics is present throughout the daily work of UK pharmacists and there was consensus amongst the profession about how ethical problems should be handled.  Such consensus, says the report, implies that certain attitudes and ethical values are embedded in the culture of pharmacy practice. 

'Ethics in pharmacy practice' is a report of a doctoral research study carried out by Dr Zuzana Deans,Teaching and Research Associate at the Centre for Ethics in Medicine, University of Bristol, UK. The results show that pharmacists currently understand ethics as being a mixture of personal opinion, peer consensus, cultural influences and institutional rules.  They take a 'patchwork' approach to ethics, relying on a combination of common sense, official guidance, strict rules, professional obligations and professional autonomy.

The majority of pharmacists across the profession who were involved in the study reported the patient's health interests as the most important factor to consider in ethical decision making.  The research also indicated that regulation seems to play a very important part in moral decision making.  When asked to rank the level of consideration they gave to certain factors when faced with an ethical problem, pharmacists ranked consideration of the law, RPSGB guidelines, their reputation and the risk of being struck off more highly than the patient's non-health interests.

Says Dr Deans:  "The research indicated that pharmacists tend to be dutiful in regard to institutional rules but are sometimes willing to break them when the interests of the patient are considered to outweigh the possible negative consequences of breaking the law.  The findings of this research provide evidence that ethical problem-solving is an important part of the 'job description' of pharmacists.  While it is already clear that ethics plays a significant role in the consciousness of the professional body and the regulator, there is evidence that ethics is also a prominent feature at the practice level.  

Practising pharmacy means not only applying technical knowledge about medicines and physiology but also using skills to understand and work with patients as persons.  A natural line for further investigation would be to determine the extent of pharmacists' awareness, knowledge and understanding of ethics." 

Commenting on the research findings, Joy Wingfield, Professor of Pharmacy Law and Ethics at The University of Nottingham,UK said:  "It is heartening that the "common sense" ethical values embedded in pharmacy practice ensure that patients' interests remain paramount. However, to meet the moral challenges of future health care pharmacists will need an even more firm grasp of ethical principles, rational decision making and ethical literacy to keep pace".

http://www.pprt.org.uk/Documents/Ethics_in_Pharmacy_Practice_200910.pdf