Development and evaluation of the impact of interactive law and ethics workshops in terms of pharmacy students’ moral reasoning processes

Abstract

3. Introduction/background: Most pharmacists are confronted with ethical issues on a daily basis. Although most of these scenarios are fairly straight forward, the profession is increasingly facing complicated ethical issues. Contemporary pharmacy practice requires of pharmacists to be able to solve ethical dilemmas in a systematic way. Pharmacists therefore need to have an appropriate knowledge of the various legal principles, the accepted code of ethics and the profession's underlying values. Furthermore, pharmacists need to be able to follow a systematic moral reasoning process when facing difficult ethical decisions. 4. Purpose/objectives: The overall objective of this project is to integrate and apply theoretical law and ethics lecture content to real practice scenarios. For this purpose challenging ethical scenarios will be introduced to students during interactive workshops. Students will be encouraged to follow a systematic process in the analysis of these scenarios. The project involves the development of the ethics scenarios and the testing of the impact of the workshops on third year pharmacy students' understanding of moral reasoning. 5. Issues/questions for exploration or ideas for discussion: To what extent do the application of legal principles and the use of a systematic process assist pharmacy students' ethical reasoning and the development of their moral reasoning skills. 6. Results: In total, approx. 120 pharmacy students will participate in seven ethics workshops in semester 1 2010. Students will be requested to complete a survey before the first workshop, testing their ability to address complicated ethical issues. Students will complete the same survey at the end of the last workshop. These pre- and post surveys will assist in determining the extent to which students' moral reasoning developed throughout the semester. Students will also provide qualitative feedback at the end of the semester.