Professional Transgressions by Australian Pharmacists

Abstract

Background Investigating professional transgressions by pharmacists will aid to minimise their occurrence and ensure that the public's trust and well‐being are not compromised Aim To compare the definition of professional transgression in all Australian pharmacy acts; to identify the characteristics of pharmacists most likely to transgress; to identify the most prevalent transgressions; and to identify the justification provided by pharmacists for committing transgression. Method Definitions of professional transgression, commonly referred to as ‘professional misconduct’, were identified from all Australian pharmacy acts and then compared. Disciplinary hearings brought before the pharmacy regulatory bodies were collected and the demographic data of the pharmacists involved, transgressions committed and the justifications provided for committing them were identified and analysed. Results Professional transgression was defined differently in each state using a combination of terms, such as a lack of skill, experience, knowledge, care and judgement. Cases from 1990 to 2002 were analysed with 195 cases adjudged guilty. Of those cases that provided adequate detail, the majority of pharmacists found guilty were male (89%), worked in community pharmacy (97%) and were proprietors (64%). The most common misconduct was inappropriate supply of medications. Reasons cited for professional misconduct included human error, lack of knowledge, management skills, personal issues and intentional transgression. Conclusion Australian pharmacy acts require a unified definition of professional transgression to ensure pharmacists are treated equally. Adopting a systems approach may prevent unintentional transgressions from occurring in the future.

Factors influencing pharmacist performance: A review of the peer-reviewed literature

“…Four studies used qualitative interview or focus group techniques [42,48,49,60]. Six studies (one reported in two papers) used retrospective reviews of disciplinary/performance records to explore performance [38][39][40]61,62,68,71]. Three studies used retrospective analysis of error data [52,53,72], whilst seven studies used prospective data collection techniques on errors [37,42,56,69,70] or clinical interventions [50,64].…”

“…Two studies were conducted in Canada [38][39][40], two in Australia [62,63] and two in Europe [57,67]. One study was a literature review reporting data from a number of countries [51].…”

Pharmacy Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism: A Review of the Literature

“…This may partially explain why hospital pharmacists seem to be less involved in ethical transgressions than those activating in community settings (in Australia, 1.6% of the pharmacists sanctioned for violations of professional ethics were working in hospitals and 97% in community settings) [26].…”

“…Sometimes business difficulties in pharmacy lead to fraud, as illustrated by an Australian pharmacist sanctioned by the professional body for violating professional rules in the attempt to repay business debts [26]. Any violation of the legal rules is inherently unethical, but actions and behaviours satisfying the minimal legal requirements are not necessarily ethical; the "ethical" label is to be applied to behaviours that go "above and beyond" the regulatory framework in force [5].…”

“…Latif [44] reported in a questionnaire-based study that workload seem not to reduce the quality of patient care and clinical decision-making, but this study had a number of limitations, including the potential use of a workload measurement not sensitive enough, a relatively low response rate and a sample of pharmacists from a single city. Business interests may lead to "unreasonable working conditions," with a high volume of work, long working hours and no breaks, which not only are a source of frustration for the employed pharmacists [60] but also have been shown to increase the risk of errors and ethical transgressions [26]. In Australia, dissatisfied pharmacists who gave up practicing in the community setting described the working conditions and atmosphere as "unreasonable" and more similar to a factory than a professional environment, whereas in Romania, for instance, there is a widespread practice of having pharmacists working two full weekends every month, which means that a pharmacist has a full work-break only after 12 days.…”