Compassion.
It’s something patients and their families expect.
And it’s something pharmacy professionals strive to provide.
However, it is often unclear exactly what compassion is and how it should be applied to pharmacy practice.
To help clarify what compassion in pharmacy practice involves, ACP Council recently approved guidelines defining compassion and how it relates to the Standards of Practice of Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians.
The document provides pharmacy professionals with a framework with which to apply their professional judgement when they are assessing if a specific individual requires a drug product, professional service, healthcare product, aid, or device for compassionate reasons.
In general, pharmacy professionals may only provide a product or service for compassionate reasons based on a unique individual patient assessment. Compassion and compassionate care cannot be commoditized or generalized and must always be provided in the health interests of the patient and not for the commercial interests of the pharmacy.
More information can be found in the document, Guidelines for interpreting the principle of compassion.
