Shiraz Pharmaceutical Students’ Knowledge about Pharmacy Professional Ethics

In the medical community, ethics is important in this profession and pharmacy, like other branches of medical sciences, and requires attention. We aimed to examine the level of students’ knowledge of the Pharmacy Faculty of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences from the principles of professional ethics recommended by the American Pharmacy Association in their ethical codes, especially the principles of patient rights.

This was a descriptive-observational cross-sectional study. The study population consisted of 162 Pharmacy students from the 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and final semesters of the Faculty of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences who were willing to participate in the study. To collect data, a questionnaire containing 18 questions was used. The validity and reliability of this questionnaire was confirmed by expert faculty members of the Medical Ethics Department and the Faculty of Pharmacy, as well as the statistics expert. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software (version 23).

According to Pearson test, there was a significant relationship between knowledge level and academic semester and year of entrance (P<0.05). 87 (53.7%) students participated in the workshop and 75 (46.3%) did not participate in the workshop. According to the K2 test, there was a significant relationship between knowledge and participation in the workshop (P<0.05). 14 (8.6%) students had moderate knowledge level, 68 (42%) had good knowledge level and 80 (49.4%) had very good knowledge.

Because of the necessity and importance of observing ethics and behavior in their professional and job scopes, pharmacy service providers, especially pharmacists, should be aware of the principles of professional ethics and patient rights, and adhere to it. Accordingly, in addition to the necessity of quantitative and qualitative improvement of continuing education in the PhD degree course in pharmacy, the training framework should be arranged and planned in a way that, in addition
to transferring knowledge to students, leads to the creation of a positive attitude and, ultimately, an increase in their skills.
Keywords: PROFESSIONAL ETHICS, MEDICAL ETHICS, ETHICS IN PHARMACY