Ethical Dilemmas Faced by Pharmacists in Decision-Making Related to Medication Therapy
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Abstract
Ethical practice is a foundational value of pharmacists and the pharmacy profession. The therapeutic outcome of a treatment regimen that a patient receives could be influenced by the ethical judgment and decision-making of the pharmacist. During medication therapy management, the pharmacist is often required to perform functions that may bear on ethical concerns. Unfortunately, sometimes there is a conflict of values, or wedges narrow the pharmacist's power to act upon these concerns. Pharmacists usually operate in a world of gray zones that straddle the boundaries between therapeutic and nontherapeutic effects. There is some guidance available for describing and analyzing ethical issues faced by physicians, yet there is none specific to pharmacy. (Norris, 2022)
Pharmacists often do not have to find their own ethical bearings and use resources designed for other health professionals to support their ethical decision-making; nevertheless, such assistance may not include some of the specific contexts where pharmacists operate. This paper will define the role of ethical judgment and decision-making by means of a questionnaire, generated from applicable policy documents and guidelines, which discuss problems and dilemmas in making decisions about drug therapy, clinical pharmacist responsibility, patient autonomy, confidential information, gift-taking, and ethical judgments regarding others in a pharmacy setting. (Cox, 2021)