[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Ethical issues
"An order given by a prescriber that a stated amount of a drug or mixture of drugs specified therein, or a device, be dispensed for the person therein named."
Pharmacists and healthcare professionals are playing an important role in the provision of medical facilities to the United States citizens. Medication is an important source of treatment for the physicians. However heavy reliance on the medication is giving rise to the problems of toxicity and iatrogenic injury.
Traditionally, the duty of the pharmacist was fairly simple. A pharmacist was required to correctly fill the prescriptions given by a doctor to his patients. The duty was limited primarily because of physicians' dominant position in health care during this century. Pharmacists questioning the prescribing practices of a physician might interfere with the physician-patient relationship. This approach relied on the learned intermediary doctrine in which a physician (the learned intermediary), not the pharmacist, has the duty to warn patients about the potential side effects of drugs. (Code of Ethics, 1952)
It is important for the physicians and the pharmacists to understand their greater responsibility of carefully using the drug therapy. With the advent of many chronic diseases and a large number of drugs the responsibility of the proper use of treatment has also been multiplied. There are also several ethical issues which are related to the use and the recommendation and use of these drugs for the patients. The positive coordination between the physician and the pharmacist can increase the advantage of the drug therapy. Both should find out the best possible way out for the dealing with the medical problem of the patient. Proper drug therapy requires full participation of the physician, pharmacist and patient. It must be based on sound and specific knowledge, and the appropriate selection, accurate distribution and correct use of a drug for the patient's condition....................
