Ethics and Ethical Standards for Pharmacists

About this course

Pharmacy professionals make ethical decisions many times a day, often at speed and in public: whether to supply an emergency medicine without a prescription, how to respond to a request for a medicine that may be misused, what to do about a prescribing error, how to handle a request that conflicts with personal beliefs, and how to balance commercial targets with what is right for the patient. The General Pharmaceutical Council's Standards for pharmacy professionals, supported by its guidance, set the framework for these decisions.

This course applies the core ethical principles to community, hospital, primary care and online pharmacy. It explains the GPhC's role and the legal framework for pharmacy, covers consent, confidentiality, personal beliefs, honesty and candour, records, commercial pressures, prescribing, boundaries, and how the GPhC responds when standards are breached.

CPD Value and How to Record It:

This course is designed to provide approximately 2 hours of learning, including reading, the reflection points, the reflective account and the assessment. In the UK, CPD is generally recorded as the time actually spent learning, so you should record the time you genuinely spend, which may be more or less than the estimate.

How the course fits your revalidation or CPD requirements depends on your regulator. For example, the NMC asks nurses, midwives and nursing associates to record 35 hours of CPD over three years, of which at least 20 must be participatory; self-directed online learning such as this course usually counts as individual learning unless you complete it with others. The GMC expects doctors to reflect on CPD for appraisal and revalidation rather than setting a fixed number of hours. The HCPC, GDC, GPhC, GOC, GOsC and GCC each set their own CPD requirements, so check the current rules that apply to you. Always keep your certificate together with your written reflection.

What you will learn

• Explain why ethics is central to pharmacy practice.
• Describe the GPhC's role, the nine standards and the legal framework for pharmacy.
• Apply autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice and confidentiality in pharmacy.
• Manage personal beliefs without compromising access to care.
• Act with honesty, apply the duty of candour and keep accurate records.
• Resist inappropriate commercial pressure and prescribe ethically.
• Maintain boundaries and respond to breaches with insight and remediation.

Who this course is for

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in community, hospital, primary care, online and industry settings, including those responding to a concern.

Course content

9 sections · 2 CPD hours · 15 MCQs

Course facts

CPD value

Approximately 2 CPD hours (estimated learning time, including reflection and assessment); suitable as a CPD record for GPhC revalidation

Format

Self-paced reading with pharmacy case studies, reflection points and a written reflective account

Standards covered

GPhC Standards for pharmacy professionals and In practice guidance; Responsible Pharmacist Regulations; dispensing error defences; consent and capacity law; controlled drugs legislation

Assessment

15 scenario-based multiple-choice questions; pass mark 12 out of 15 (80%)

Questions about this course