I am impressed with the quality of many of the responses. And I agree fully that ethics are important and should be taught. But I am also concerned about the deteriorating quality with which pharmacokinetics has been taught over the last 40 years. Pharmacists are no longer as capable as they iused to be with regard to carefully individualized drug therapy. So - called "basic pharmacokinetics" simply repeats the obsolete practice of using linear regression on the logs of the serum concentrations.This is a total waste of time, in my view. We need to teach useful clinical PK based not on NONMEM etc., for exaample, but rather on the clearly more capable methods of nonparametric modeling and maaximally precise multiple model dosage design. And this is just as easily taught as Sawchuk Zaske. Then there is the interacting multiple model approach to acutely ill and unstable patients in the ICU. The ITAG5 workshop in Lyon this April is devoted to this, with a combination of MD's and pharmactsts. Go to www.lapk.org and click around. This is what can be done by both MD's and Pharm D's together. This, I would respectfully suggest, is what can be done NOW in pharmacy education. I am attaching one paper giving an overview of this.

Very best regards to all,

Roger Jelliffe

it is true we must strengthen the teaching of ethics by giving it a higher coefficient and spread it throughout the curriculum from the first year.

 This matter of ethics in pharmacy education is certainly important.  It has been a subject of several papers, but there are still questions left unanswered.  Perhaps your study will add a significant contribution.  All the best.

"The importance of ethics in pharmacy education and practice has recently received increased attention. Previous studies have addressed occupational orientation and personality traits as well as the nature of attitudes and values. Many unanswered questions remain..."

Article Cross-Sectional Study of the Ethics of Pharmacy Students

Like any healthcare profession, pharmacists are required to make ethical decisions every day. Ethics involves a fundamental discussion about values, obtained through a combination of logical investigation and careful introspection. E.g. should I dispense a needle and syringe, without a legitimate medical purpose, to a known IV drug user that's afraid of getting HIV?

As pharmacists become more and more involved with direct patient care (and move farther from their traditional dispensing role), the question of ethics becomes all the more pertinent. Furthermore, as pharmacists take on roles within healthcare administration, ethical decision making is required at every turn. E.g. do I dispense a highly expensive drug to a patient that can't afford it, even if it may save their life (or, worse yet, only prolong it for a few months, or a year, or a day)?

I firmly believe that ethics should be a part of the pharmacy curriculum.

I am impressed with the quality of many of the responses. And I agree fully that ethics are important and should be taught. But I am also concerned about the deteriorating quality with which pharmacokinetics has been taught over the last 40 years. Pharmacists are no longer as capable as they iused to be with regard to carefully individualized drug therapy. So - called "basic pharmacokinetics" simply repeats the obsolete practice of using linear regression on the logs of the serum concentrations.This is a total waste of time, in my view. We need to teach useful clinical PK based not on NONMEM etc., for exaample, but rather on the clearly more capable methods of nonparametric modeling and maaximally precise multiple model dosage design. And this is just as easily taught as Sawchuk Zaske. Then there is the interacting multiple model approach to acutely ill and unstable patients in the ICU. The ITAG5 workshop in Lyon this April is devoted to this, with a combination of MD's and pharmactsts. Go to www.lapk.org and click around. This is what can be done by both MD's and Pharm D's together. This, I would respectfully suggest, is what can be done NOW in pharmacy education. I am attaching one paper giving an overview of this.

Very best regards to all,

Roger Jelliffe

Ethics is important but how should it be incorporated? Do physicians and nurses have to study ethics? If not ,why? I will answer : because ethics is embedded in the entire professional training program; it is not a subject on its own; it is not taught -it is modeled by tutors and mentors! If we must teach ethics, we need to go further into the social sciences so that we produce wholesome, caring,reflective and responsible pharmacy practitioners.

Due to the current Bioethical rules, I supposed the today's society need it.

Ethics is an integral part of one's life. It just not only come by education alone, but that doesn't mean we should not have in the curriculum, as far as pharmacy professional it is much more important as they deal with patients and as well as larger community. 

It is a very good idea.

Its implementation time has come.

I believe that ethics training is now part of the ACPE accreditation standard for schools of pharmacy. We implemented a required 2cr ethics course two years ago. Nursing has ethics as part of its accreditation standard (or so I'm told for advance practice nurses). Our medical school just launched an elective this past year.

Professionals with ethical values will contribute to a sustained and successful community. 

As pharmacy profession is currently evolving from traditional passive roles to more complex and accountable roles, it is nowadays more than ever very crucial to compile pharmacy ethics course to pharmacy curriculum. Accordingly different medico-legal issues and the consequences are increasingly involving pharmacists.

I agree that pharmacy ethics should be a course or at least part of pharmaceutical care course since now pharmacy profession focuses more about patient care. Pharmacists should learn about patient-practitioner interaction or relationship and standard of practice.