Ethical Practices In Pharmacy

This textbook offers a unique and accessible approach to ethical decision-making for practicing pharmacists and student pharmacists. Unlike other texts, it gives clear guidance based on the fundamental principles of moral philosophy, explaining them in simple language and illustrating them with abundant clinical examples and case studies. The strength of this text is in its emphasis on normative ethics and critical thinking, and that there is truly a best answer in the vast majority of cases, no matter how complex. The authors place high trust in a pharmacist’s moral judgment. This teaches the reader how to think, based on ethical principles, not necessarily what to think. This means navigating between the two extremes of overly theoretical and excessively prescriptive. The cogent framework given in this text uses the language of competing duties, identifying the moral principles at stake that create duties for the pharmacist. This is the balancing act of normative ethics, and of deciding which duties should prevail in a given clinical situation. This work presents a clear-cut pathway for resolving ethical dilemmas encountered by pharmacists, based on foundational principles and critical thinking. Presents a clear-cut pathway for resolving the ethical dilemmas encountered by pharmacists, based on foundational principles and critical thinking. Jon E. Sprague, RPh, PhD, Director of Science and Research for the Ohio Attorney General

Pharmacy Ethics: A Foundation for Professional Practice provides a model for examining and resolving ethical dilemmas, thereby helping student pharmacists understand the ethical decision-making process in professional practice.

Pharmacists face ethical choices constantly -- sometimes dramatic life-and-death decisions, but more often subtle, less conspicuous choices that are nonetheless important. Among the topics confronted are assisted suicide, conscientious refusal, pain management, equitable distribution of drug resources within institutions and managed care plans, confidentiality, and alternative and non-traditional therapies. Veatch and Haddad's book, first published in 1999, was the first collection of case studies based on the real experiences of practicing pharmacists, for use as a teaching tool for pharmacy students. The second edition accounts for the many changes in pharmacy since 1999, including assisted suicide in Oregon, the purchasing of less expensive drugs from Canada, and the influence of managed care on prescriptions. The presentation of some cases is shortened, most are revised and updated, and two new chapters have been added. The first new chapter presents a new model for analyzing cases, while the second focuses on the ethics of new drug distribution systems, for example hospitals where pharmacists are forced to choose drugs based on cost-effectiveness, and internet based pharmacies.

Ethical Dimensions of Pharmaceutical Care examines the recent shift in the pharmaceutical field to care provision as the primary definer of what it means to practice pharmacy in the 1990s. In the process, this book encourages readers to reconceptualize their roles as care providers and develop their own solutions to ethical dilemmas encountered in their practices. Realizing that practitioners must ultimately define their own principles and the points at which they are willing to compromise, the authors help readers construct individual philosophical approaches for conducting their services. An analytical and philosophical guidebook, Ethical Dimensions of Pharmaceutical Care delves into the diverse, yet connected, areas of pharmacy education and practice, ethics, and the ethics of care. Synthesizing theory and practice, it probes stimulating areas such as feminism and pharmacy ethics. It opens the doors to a better understanding of the deeper and multiple meanings of covenant, moral compromise, and integrity. Bringing together experts from the ethics of care, pharmaceutical care, and pharmacy ethics, Ethical Dimensions of Pharmaceutical Care analyzes the relationships between these disciplines and their combined impact on pharmacy. Professional standards and norms are examined as well as new methods relevant to the daily practice of pharmacy and its future directions. Practitioners, pharmacy academicians, and pharmacy students will find the book?s discussions of the following topics thought-provoking and instructive: comprehensive pharmaceutical care integrity and the role of the pharmacist philosophical issues encountered in practice ethical conflict and moral compromise the 1994 Code of Ethics for Pharmacists Ethical Dimensions of Pharmaceutical Care recognizes the value that traditional models of moral rules and principles have had in the various health professions. It contends, however, that the modern health care system requires different methods for practicing ethics. Proposing new approaches that acknowledge the complexity of the modern health care system, this book marks out for the pharmacist a course that will continue beyond the confines of the book.

'Case Studies in Pharmacy Ethics' explores the range of ethics situations faced by pharmacists in daily practice, from direct patient care to broad systemic issues. Using cases and commentaries, the book provides tools to assist pharmacists in understanding and resolving ethical issues

Every pharmacist constantly makes ethical choices. Sometimes these choices are dramatic, life-and-death decisions, but often they are more subtle, less conspicuous choices that are nonetheless important. Assisted suicide, conscientious refusal, pain management, equitable and efficacious distribution of drug resources within institutions and managed care plans, confidentiality, and alternative and non-traditional therapies are among the issues that are of unique concern to pharmacists. One way of seeing the implications of such issues and the moral choices they pose is to look at the experiences and the choices that have had to be made in situations typically faced by pharmacists. This book is a collection of those situations based on the real experiences of practicing pharmacists. The use of case studies in health care ethics is not new, but in pharmacy it is. This text is an important teaching tool that will help pharmacy students and pharmacists address the increasing number of ethical problems arising in their profession. It is not merely a compilation of cases, but rather is organized for the systematic study of applied ethics. Part I shows how to distinguish ethical problems from other kinds of evaluative judgments and examines the sources of values in pharmacy, posing basic questions about the meaning and justification of ethical claims. Part II explores the basic principles of ethics as they have an impact on pharmacy. Specific cases from clinical settings present in a systematic way the various questions raised by each of the major ethical principles: benefiting the patient; distributing resources justly; respecting autonomy; dealing honestly with patients; keeping promises of confidentiality; and avoiding killing. Part III examines some of the special problems of contemporary pharmacy such as the linkages between pharmaceutical care and professional practice, human experimentation, reproductive issues, genetic technology, death and dying, and mental health.