Patient counseling is a cornerstone of ethical pharmacy practice and high quality pharmaceutical care Counseling promotes patient compliance with prescription regimens and prevents dangerous drug interactions and medication errors Counseling also promotes informed consent and protects pharmacists against legal risks However, economic, social, and technological changes in pharmacy practice often force community pharmacists to choose between their professional obligations to counsel patients and business objectives State and federal legislatures have enacted laws that require pharmacists to counsel patients, but these laws have had mixed results This essay argues that community pharmacy's patient counseling conundrum can be solved through additional moral education and moral persuasion, not through additional legal mandates

The Conflict Between Ethics and Business in Community Pharmacy: What About Patient Counseling?

The conflict between ethics and business in community pharmacy

The Scope of pharmacy ethics—an evaluation of the international research literature, 1990–2002

Implementation of a professional program in Finnish community pharmacies in 2000-2002.

This study examined whether the theoretical constructs of role conflict and incomplete professionalization serve as valid explanations of pharmacists' professional satisfaction or dissatisfaction. A sample of registered pharmacists in Oklahoma responded to a mail-out questionnaire containing indicies designed to measure job satisfaction and professional satisfaction. The questionnaire also included a satisfaction inventory of 17 facets considered to characterize pharmacy as a profession. From the questionnaire respondents, samples of pharmacists demonstrating extreme professional satisfaction and extreme dissatisfaction were randomly selected for telephone interviews. This study found pharmacists' professional satisfaction to be significantly less than satisfaction with their job. The study results would indicate that incomplete professionalization and internalized career goals rather than role conflicts are significantly related to pharmacist professional satisfaction.

Ladinsky J

Papers

Professions and the public interest: where does pharmacy fit?