Evaluation of Pharmacy Professional Ethics in Drugstores and Its Improvement Strategies from the Viewpoint of Students and Faculty Members of Tabriz School of Pharmacy

Pharmacists, as a member of the health team face a lot of ethical challenges in performing their professional duties. This study was aimed to evaluate status, challenges and improvement strategies of pharmacy professional ethics in drugstores. It was a descriptive-analytic study carried out in 2015-2016. Data was collected using a standardized questionnaire related to principles of pharmacy professional ethics’ code from the viewpoint of qualified faculty members and students of Tabriz faculty of pharmacy. The overall score obtained for each principles of professional ethics code indicated moderate and high level status for each of the principles. However, there are some shortcomings in counseling to patients, consulting and interacting with physician, delivery of non-OTC drugs without any prescription, and accepting professional responsibility among the pharmacists. In addition, 71.5% of the professors and 75.5% of the students believed that inadequate income of pharmacists, the economic problems of drugstores, defects in the insurance systems, lack of proper culture for pharmacist's position, insufficient training of professional ethics at universities, priority of physician in Iran health system and giving gifts by some pharmaceutical companies are the main factors influencing professional ethics in pharmacies. Thus, comprehensive management is essential for improving professional ethics in pharmacies. In this regard, promoting professional ethics education, paying attention to economic problems of pharmacists and pharmacies, improving the performance of insurance organizations, developing culture to promote the position of pharmacists and serious supervision of health system officials on drugstores and pharmaceutical companies are necessary.