Pharmacy students' perceived professionalism and application of bioethical principles: Implications for teaching pharmacy ethics for patient-centred pharmacy practice

Abstract

Context: Pharmacists providing pharmaceutical care are often confronted with a variety of professional issues, ethical dilemmas and moral problems that require professionalism to appropriately address. Aims: To investigate undergraduate fifth- year (final-year) Bachelor of Pharmacy (B. Pharm.) students’ views on professionalism, ethical dilemmas, and their application of bioethical principles, and to compare responses of various groups (pharmacy schools, age, gender, and religion). Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey of the final-year B.Pharm. students in two pharmacy schools in northern Nigeria. The descriptive and inferential statistics (Chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests and Independent-sample t-test) were utilised to analyse the study data. Statistical significance was considered at p<0.05. Results: Ninety-five students, corresponding to 49.5% response rate, participated in the study. More than 79% of the students strongly agreed that their actions as future pharmacists could affect how the profession is viewed by patients and other healthcare providers. Patients’ right to autonomy and non-maleficence were the most utilised bioethical principles by the participants. Conclusions: The study shows that the participants had good overall perceived professionalism and fair bioethical reasoning. Different bioethical principles were used by various groups considered to support how they would deal with each ethical dilemma. New strategies in teaching pharmacy practice courses by pharmacy educators in these schools are necessary to improve students’ bioethical reasoning which will maximise the quality of their future practice.