¶ … pharmacists get involved in medical ethics-Making medical ethics decisions about medical treatments?
It could be argued that a pharmacist makes an ethical decision every time he or she dispenses a prescription. A pharmacist must make a determination if the medication is appropriate for the patient's condition, if the patient understands the risks and benefits of taking the medication, and understands how to correctly administer the medication to him or herself. If the patient seems unclear on these issues, and has no caretaker, the pharmacist may have to intervene -- or even simply if the medication seems questionable for the condition it is designed to treat. A heavy painkiller for minor pain might raise a pharmacist's ethical 'red flag.' The pharmacist might be concerned that the patient is using certain drugs, such as the stimulant Adderall, for non-medical purposes, if the patient is receiving frequent large prescriptions from various physicians. Or the patient may ask the pharmacist point-blank: 'is it true that this will help me stay awake longer to study?' Pharmacists have the responsibility to report patient's and physician's 'bad practices' as well as to identify potentially dangerous scenarios with immediate consequences.
Within the profession itself, there are many ethical debates, pertaining to medications, such as prescribing psychotropic drugs like antidepressants to adolescents, the correct times to use palliative care at the end of a patient's life, the ethics of emergency contraception and giving 'the morning after pill' and contraception to adolescents without parental consent. For pharmacists engaged in research, the appropriate use of animals in research and whom to include or exclude in clinical trials may be another issue of personal concern (Applelbe 2008). In all cases, to dispense medication means one must dispense good judgment, not simply pills and potions.
Works Cited
Pharmacy Ethics and Decision Making. (2008). Foreword by Gordon E. Appelbe. First edition.
London: Pharma Press.
Criminal Behavior and Healthcare Professionals: An Examination of Pharmacists When it comes to health care professionals like doctors, nurses, pharmacists or nurse practitioners, it's hard to picture them engaged in actions that are not helping-focused, as these professional have ultimately devoted their lives towards helping other people. However, the reality is that these health care professionals are people too and still subject to weaknesses, temptation and even criminal activity. This paper
Medical Care Perhaps the single biggest blessing that any individual can thank his or her stars for is a sense of physiological and psychological well being that allows for the optimal utilization of one's lifetime. In the same vein, all humankind can perhaps also thank and bless the significant advances made by the medical sciences, which has resulted in the ability to cure many an illness and overall increase the average
MEDICAL NURSING Medical Nursing: PDCA Cycle (Time Management)The PDCA (plan, do, check, act) cycle is a useful management tool that helps a person create an effective approach for identifying problems and devising solutions (Wu et al., 2015). It is a quality management method that could be used as a professional development mechanism if a person wants to apply it for individual management and improve a certain personality skill. This paper
Ethics Case Study: Medical Law and Ethics Jerry McCall is Dr. William's office assistant. He has received professional training as both a medical assistant and an LPN. He is handling all of the phone calls at the office while the receptionist is at lunch. During this period of time, a patient calls and says he must have a prescription refill for Valium, an antidepressant medication, called in right away to his
Health Care Situation: Medical Error Due to Doctors' Bad Handwriting Identify a health care news situation that affects a health care organization such as a hospital, clinic or insurance company. I have identified the following health care news situation as the topic of my paper: "Poor Handwriting of Doctors and its implied risks for the Patient, Hospital and Medical Malpractice Insurance." Poor handwriting of physicians resulting in poor legibility of entries into
Patient care and recovery statistics demonstrate that the United States has a medical care system with which Americans are less satisfied than other citizens in developed countries. There are many reasons for this: correlation between health and socioeconomic status; non-universality; federal government is not involved in medical planning although it purchases a large percentage of the 14% health care GNP; lobbying and special interest group interference; and political opposition to
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now