Comparison of Professional Ethics Course in Pharm. D. Curriculum of Selected Pharmacy Faculties

Introduction: Recent developments in the practice of pharmacists and inadequate skills and knowledge of ethical concepts and values have seriously challenged the pharmacists. Promotion of professional ethics curriculum for better clinical decision-making in patient care is vital to eliminate these problems. This study was aimed to perform a comparative study of professional ethics course in Pharm. D. curriculum in ten selected pharmacy faculties.

Methods: This descriptive-comparative study compared professional ethics curriculum using Brady's model at ten selected pharmacy Faculties according to the rankings of Quacquarelli Symonds institute, including description, interpretation, juxtaposition and comparison. The dimensions of this course were obtained by a researcher-made checklist based on the main elements of a curriculum. The validity of the instrument was confirmed by medical education experts.

Results: The results showed the main objective of pharmacy curriculum was promoting the health of patients and society. Most similarities of professional ethics curriculum included presenting lecture method along with other student-centered methods in six faculties, presenting the concepts of ethics and law in the course content in nine faculties and offering the course in the first semester concurrently with apprenticeship in five faculties. Most differences were found for definition of existing grounds for production of educational content in one faculty and e-learning methods in two faculties.

Conclusion: The chosen pharmacy faculties were common in the main objective of the curriculum but were different in criteria for development of professional ethics course content, including social, cultural and regional contexts as well as student learning needs and use of e-learning methods. Offering the professional ethics course in the first academic year concurrently with clinical work as well as employing technology-based methods for teaching and students' assessment at selected faculties, owing to their localization in professional ethics curriculum in Iran, can be taken into consideration.