Evaluation of common ethical dilemmas in Tabriz pharmacies and pharmacist's ethical attitude in 2020

Abstract

Introduction: Despite extensive research in many areas of health care, pharmacy has received less attention in terms of practical ethics. Pharmacists are an essential part of the healthcare multidisciplinary team. Scope: This study aimed to evaluate of common ethical dilemmas in Tabriz pharmacies and pharmacist's ethical attitude. Methods and materials: We formed a small group called focus group consisting of 20 pharmacists working in pharmacies in Tabriz with a minimum experience of 16 years and scenarios was collected based on the challenges for pharmacists working in pharmacies in Tabriz. Then, based on these scenarios, a questionnaire was designed and given to 54 pharmacists working in pharmacies in Tabriz with at least 2 years of experience. The indication percentage of these problems and the treatment of pharmacists were studied. Results: The empirical research findings presented here form one level of investigation into pharmacy practice ethics. Although not statistically representative of the pharmacy population in Iran, the findings provide preliminary evidence of some ethical problems pharmacists face and detail frequencies of occurrence of these problems. The findings show that ethics is an integral part of pharmacy practice, that pharmacists giving the patient’s interests priority, and are often influenced by regulation. The main challenges included: requesting contraceptive drugs, returning the drug by the patient, dealing with the possibility of the client abusing the drug, requesting confidential patient information by individuals, requesting the delivery of unrelated drugs by the patient. Conclusion: The findings provide insight into what pharmacists understand ethics to be and several times dealing with moral dilemmas.