Martine Kruijtbosch

161 Mo ra l case de l i be ra t i on Third, the results cannot be generalized to all community pharmacists, as only a limited number of community pharmacists participated (N = 14). More MCD sessions are required- perhaps even series of MCD sessions with the same group as has been done in studies with other health professionals. 16,20 A clearly described facilitator MCD manual, with the 10 steps of the dilemma method described therein, is now available and enables the replication of this study by newly trained facilitators with lack of experience. 28 Last, the trustworthiness of the data was determined through the triangulation 27,43 of two different data sources: audio recordings of the deliberation in all the methodical steps generating participants’ own experienced moral reflectivity and an anonymous online questionnaire. The online questionnaire data allowed for confirmation of findings within the two MCD sessions. However, both facilitators of the MCD sessions were also members of the research team. These facilitators may have influenced the deliberation and participants to positively evaluate the sessions. 10 This effect was minimized because both facilitators were present in the MCD sessions: one facilitator in the background checked the other facilitator on involvement with the content or other actions that could cause bias in the participants’ deliberation and evaluation. Also, the participating pharmacists were self-motivated to participate, which could also have influenced the positive results. CONCLUSION Community pharmacists are confronted with moral dilemmas on a daily basis. Online MCD structured by the dilemma method has been evaluated positively as having the potential to foster moral reflectivity in community pharmacists in the context of professionally resolving moral dilemmas. This explorative study showed that through the deliberation, community pharmacists became more aware of their professional values, what these meant to themselves and other participants and the role those values play in substantiating ethical decision- making in the context of moral dilemmas. MCD also fostered the ability to listen to other perspectives and thereby to come to new (moral) understandings regarding the pharmacists’ own professionalism and that of their colleagues. This study indicates that MCD could be introduced in professional ethics pharmacy education. More research is recommended to continue gathering empirical evaluation data of MCD with community pharmacists. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We sincerely thank the community pharmacists who participated in the pilot, and in the two MCD sessions.