Pharmacy of today appears as a collection of disputatious factions and splinter groups still ‘a profession in search of a role’and a profession unable to choose from a bewildering variety of functions and unable to overcome a variety of ‘barriers to clinical practice’.
We will not solve this problem by introspection. It will not help to clarify, list, or debate more functions for pharmacy. The element that is missing as we define our role during this period of transition is our conception of our responsibility to the patient. Some pharmacists have not yet identified patient-care responsibilities commensurate with their extended functions, and the profession as a whole has not made CLEAR SOCIAL COMMITMENT that reflects its clinical functions. Some pharmacists will remain mired in the transitional period of professional adolescence until this step is taken.
Pharmaceutical practice must restore what has been missing for years: a clear emphasis on the patient’s welfare. Professional maturity has much in common with maturity as a person. One attribute common to both is a word view, an expectation that one thrives best by using one’s power t serve something bigger than oneself. Another attribute common to both is acceptance of responsibility for one’s actions.
Drugs do not have doses, patients have doses.
(Charles D. Hepler and Linda M. Strand statement back in March 1990 in an American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy)
